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Just arrived in our inbox: Ahead of the kick-off of New York fashion week, Diane von Furstenberg—who is laid up in LA with a broken nose and fractured face—sent out an email in her capacity as the President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). It includes the CFDA Health Initiative guidelines—recommendations adopted by the organization in 2007 which are, for the most part, intended to address concerns over models' well-being.
"Our choices can have positive consequences on the lives of women," she writes. "A healthy mind in a healthy body is a healthy life! Choose health and diversity."
The guideline points state:
· Educate the industry to identify the early warning signs in an individual at risk of developing an eating disorder.· CFDA [Official Site]· Encourage models who may have an eating disorder to seek professional help in order to continue modeling. And models who are receiving professional help for an eating disorder should not continue modeling without that professional’s approval.
· Develop workshops for the industry (including models and their families) on the nature of eating disorders, how they arise, how we identify and treat them, and complications if they are untreated.
· Support the well-being of younger individuals by not hiring models under the age of sixteen for runway shows; not allowing models under the age of eighteen to work past midnight at fittings or shoots; and providing regular breaks and rest. (Consult the applicable labor laws found at www.labor.state.ny.us when working with models under sixteen.)
· Supply healthy meals, snacks, and water backstage and at shoots and provide nutrition and fitness education.
· Promote a healthy backstage environment by raising the awareness of the impact of smoking and tobacco-related disease among women, ensuring a smoke-free environment, and address underage drinking by prohibiting alcohol.