Again, Naomi Campbell defends fashion industry

February 16th, 2007

Supermodel Naomi Campbell has waded into the size zero debate and declared: “Don’t blame the fashion industry.” The Streatham-born beauty said underweight girls on the catwalk were suffering from a psychological illness and were not being pressured into looking skinny.
Speaking at the Elle Style Awards, where she was honoured with the model of the year title, Campbell said: “You can’t blame the industry for a psychological disease. It is a disease, like alcohol or drugs, and the industry is not to blame.”
Campbell praised recent initiatives to ban girls aged under 16 from the catwalk. And she said her agency, IMG, had issued guidelines to make sure girls at fashion shows are well fed and that the backstage area is an alcohol-free zone.
Campbell was fashionably late for the awards at the Roundhouse in Camden, north London. Her car apparently failed to turn up and she had to hail her own taxi…