Chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America – Steven Kolb – has expressed disappointment over the amount of young teen models who have appeared on this years New York Fashion Week catwalks.

This season the council released guidelines for designers to discourage them from using models under the age of 16 in US catwalk shows. The guidelines were set out due to concerns that models who are under that age may be unprepared for the ‘adult environment’ that catwalk events can involve. The C.F.D.A recommended the use of I.D at fashion shows in a move that it was hoped would make designers think twice before hiring younger models. However, Kolb did clarify that designers would not face punishment should young models be seen walking for them.

“In the instances where we might see a girl under 16, we’ll let the designer know that. A lot of times the designer doesn’t know.” He told Fashionista, adding: “Our intention was never to be a police state, but to educate and create awareness and to really bring a dialogue to the issue. If you look now and you compare what we’ve done in New York compared to what’s done in Europe, you don’t even hear that dialogue about it anymore. The fact that we’re even talking about underage models on the runway is a huge plus”.

Despite this opinion some designers still prefer to use younger models for their shows. On Monday two of the models used in Marc Jacobs’ show were known to be under 16. When contacted about his decision to go ahead and use young teen models Jacobs said: “I do the show the way I think it should be and not the way somebody tells me it should be. If their parents are willing to let them do a show, I don’t see any reason that it should be me who tells them that they can’t. There are child actors and child models for catalogues and stuff, so I guess if a parent thinks it’s O.K. and a kid wants to do it, it’s fine.”

Photographer David Urbanke appears to disagree with this sentiment. Yesterday he Tweeted, “I’ve stopped counting the number of underage girls I’ve photographed that have walked shows this season smh…”

Kolb said this morning: “The guidelines are suggested recommendations. They are not mandatory requirements. Each season we hope designers will follow them but it is really up to the designers to decide.” The C.F.D.A has also suggested that models under the age of 18 should not attend post-midnight fitting sessions.

Talent and modelling agency Talent Management would love to know what do you think of these new suggestions from the Council of Fashion Designers of America? Should it ultimately be up to the parents to decide what their child is or isn’t able to cope with or are guidelines like these necessary in order to protect young models in a catwalk environment?