Leading figures of Israel’s fashion industry, alarmed by the number of young women suffering form bulimia or anorexia, are supporting the “look good and stay alive” campaign to ensure models have healthy figures.
The Government of the country is currently considering whether to support the Bill, tabled by one of the members of Parliament, that would require all models to undergo extensive health checks before entering the profession. Those estimated healthy would get a licence while any who were too thin would be given nutritional advice and a two-month deadline to put on weight or be barred, reports The Times.
One of Israel’s most successful fashion photographers, Adi Barkan, recognized the problem two years ago when he returned to Tel Aviv after a career in London and New York. While searching for new faces, he discovered that 1,644 girls out of the 12,000 aspiring models were so anorexic they should have been admitted to hospital, with many in the 5’8” range typically weighing just 5st 7lb to 6st 4lb.
Israeli officials say that 10 per cent of girls between 14 and 17 have eating disorder, believing they must diet obsessively to have any hope of a career on the catwalk.
“I began to wonder where all this misery was coming from,” said Mr Barkan. “I realised we as professional photographers, fashion designers and advertisers were at least partly responsible.”
He now runs a program to help anorexics. He set the minimum body mass index (BMI - a height-to-body fat ratio) of 19 for all the women in his modelling agency. He also pursuaded leading fashion clothing chains and food manufacturers to sign up to a charter, promising they will not use models with a BMI of less than 19 from next month, and convinced Inbal Gavrieli, the Member of Parliament, to introduce legislation insisting all models undergo an examination by a Government nutritionist.
A TV advertisement highlighting the problem is to be filmed next week. The commercial will screen four emaciated models wishing they weighed less. The last in the sequence is 29-year-old Hella Rubenstein, a 5’8” former model who weighs 4st 6lb and was hospitalized last week due to heart problems.