New York: skinny model ban a ‘discrimination’

September 17th, 2006

New York has no plans to follow in the footsteps of Madrid authorities and ban models from the runway if they are too skinny, a top industry official said overnight as fashion week here wrapped up. Stan Herman, a designer and president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, said such a ban was the type of discrimination that in the United States would likely result in legal action.
“It would be the same as banning somebody who’s too fat,” he said.
“Those people could sue, in America they could sue everywhere for prejudice or discrimination,” he said. “I wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.”
He said the issue had not even been seriously raised in New York.
“No, no, no, never. And if it is, it’s subliminal, people really don’t talk about it,” he said.
“There was talk some years ago when a lot of models were caught with cocaine and all that stuff, there was a lot of press about that, and we took it seriously… But that’s the only time we’ve ever touched that,” he said.
Spanish authorities have said they will bar overly-skinny models from a major Madrid fashion show next week for fear they could send the wrong message to young girls.
City authorities, working with a Spanish health organisation, came up with a minimum height-weight ratio that models would have to meet.