Italian stylist Raffaella Curiel said on Tuesday that modelling agencies were boycotting the fashion industry's recent anti-anorexia code because they continue to recruit extremely thin models.
"It's not the stylists who want anorexic-looking models. We design clothes for size 42 (US size 10) but the agencies send us size 36 or 38 models," said the designer who is showing her new winter collection at the Rome Alta Moda shows this week.
"The models repeatedly faint during the run-ups to the shows and I manage to keep in shape lifting them up. Yesterday, one begged me to get her a prosciutto sandwich," said Curiel who designs for a high-class clientele in Milan.
"But the truth is that stylists continue to get advisory notes from the National Chamber of Fashion Chamber or Youths Policies Minister Giovanna Melandri urging us to hire size 42 or 44 models while the agencies continue to supply us with ultra-thin ones. I'm forced to take all my clothes in so they can model them on the catwalk."
Curiel's distress call won the immediate support of Italian parents' association MOIGE which urged the government to take action.
"This is the umpteenth demonstration that the problem is widespread....and that clear and precise rules must be set and not just in Italy."
MOIGE urged fashion stylists to do their bit by refusing to hire ultra-thin models but warned that they must "stand united on the issue."
In the last year, two models have died from anorexia-related complications, Luisel Ramos of Uruguay and Ana Carolina Reston of Brazil.
The deaths prompted action in the fashion world in a number of countries.
Spain has banned overly skinny models from the catwalks, while a number of Italian stylists have signed an unofficial code of conduct, agreeing not to use under-age models and requiring medical certification before they appear in shows.
But unlike the anti-anorexia measures adopted in Spain, in Italy nothing is being enforced by law.
By signing the code, stylists, agencies, photographers and agents have promised to see that the rules are observed, each in their own corner of the industry.
A key requirement is that models must have a body mass index of at least 18.5, slightly above the figure laid down by the World Health Organization as marking the line between 'normal' and 'underweight'.
Models must also be at least 16 years old.
Several studies have shown that fashion and media portrayals of an overly thin ideal put pressure on young women and have contributed to rising eating-disorder rates.
Some three million Italians or 5% of the population suffer from such disorders, the vast majority of them women.
According to recent statistics, 8-10% of teenage girls and almost 1% of teenage boys suffer from anorexia or bulimia or both.
