![]() That, in turn, results in eating disorders, which we know are very prevalent in the industry.” The customer is a grown woman and our stake in this is that the use of underage models is linked to pressures to maintain an adolescent physique. “Children are not, for the most part, buying these clothes. “When we see a child representing the physical ideal of feminine beauty, we should ask ourselves what this represents,” says Ziff. “Companies haven’t made any kind of significant binding commitment to not hire underage models, for example, or to any number of other labor rights concerns that we've been working to address.” An ongoing reminder of fashion’s obsession with youth, the consequences of working with models barely old enough to drive are manifold. “What’s really needed are industry-wide standards that are actually enforceable, because even in the United States, where we’ve seen more progress, there still aren’t standards,” she explains on the phone from New York. Moreover, the new standard seems to have opened up a larger conversation around age inclusivity on the runway: The Fall 2019 shows in New York were the most diverse when it came to age.įor Sara Ziff, founder and executive director of the Model Alliance, a collective response to the issue of underage models is long overdue. Since August of last year, when Condé Nast issued a global vendor code of conduct stipulating that models under the age of 18 would no longer be photographed for editorials, a recommendation supported by the CFDA, casting directors and brands in New York have by and large committed to the rules. Still, sweeping change has come to the modeling industry in the past two years. Kate Moss famously began her career at 14, and the frenzy over Kaia Gerber’s sweet-16 runway debut at Calvin Klein’s Spring 2018 show is still fresh in fashion’s collective memory. At 17, Mona Tougaard swept Paris Fashion Week, landing nearly all the city’s key shows, as did 17-year-old Brazilian Mariana Barcelos. Prada, Givenchy, and Louis Vuitton sought out Sofia Steinberg, the 16-year-old Russian, while Stella McCartney, Valentino, and Loewe called upon 16-year-old British rookie Emily Driver. Though the season played host to a number of epic runway comebacks-the return of supermodels Christy Turlington and Stephanie Seymour at Marc Jacobs and Versace respectively Beverly Peele’s surprise appearance at Zendaya x Tommy Hilfiger-it was also dominated by a freshman class of models under the age of 18. The Fall 2019 shows may have come and gone, but the debate around model casting is far from over.
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