Luxury titans unite to eschew skinny models
French luxury titans LVMH and Gucci parent Kering agreed to curb the use of ultra-skinny models on runways and in advertising campaigns, bowing to a public outcry over unhealthy depictions of young women by the fashion industry.
The Paris-based companies said they’d implement stricter guidelines for the treatment of models, including increasing minimum garment sizes for fashion shows as well as requiring them to have medical certificates attesting to their good health.
Models below the age of 16 will be banned from showing grown-up fashions, while those ages 16 to 18 will need to be chaperoned, the companies said in a joint statement late last week.
“Certain subjects rise above any competition,” Antoine Arnault, chief executive officer of LVMH-owned shoemaker Berluti and eldest son of group chairman Bernard Arnault, said.
“There have been problems in all houses with the way fashion models work, with their well-being and even their psychological safety. A lot of the models are very young, and they don’t have the necessary experience to cope with certain situations. They will be looked after.”
The detente between Louis Vuitton owner LVMH and Gucci parent Kering — fierce rivals in most aspects of their business — reflects the sensitiv- ity of the issue amid growing concern over teenage eating disorders.
Kering-owned Balenciaga dismissed its casting directors during Paris Fashion Week in March after they were accused of ill-treatment of models in a viral social media post.
LVMH flagship Louis Vuitton faced a similar uproar in May when a model said she had been sent home from a show in Japan for being too heavy. The companies disputed the facts of the incidents, but the claims stole a focus from the season’s fashions at pivotal moments for the brands.
Arnault said he hoped the guidelines would be implemented by fashion shows in spring 2018.