Leading UK modelling agency Models Direct has just heard news that editors of the nineteen international Vogue magazines are launching an exciting programme across their June editions. ‘The Health Initiative’ is intended to protect models and encourage good health and positive body image within the industry.

British Vogue editor, Alexandra Shulman, has voiced concerns about the use of unhealthy models in the past. In her editor’s letter for June she states: “As one of the fashion industry’s most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference.”

She adds that the initiative will “build on the successful work that the Council of Fashion Designers of America with the support of American Vogue in the US and the British Fashion Council in the UK have already begun to encourage a healthier approach to body image within the industry”.

We found this break down of the Vogue editors modelling related agreement in today’s Telegraph:

1. We will not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder. We will work with models who, in our view, are healthy and help to promote a healthy body image.

2. We will ask agents not to knowingly send us underage girls and casting directors to check IDs when casting shoots, shows and campaigns.

3. We will help to structure mentoring programmes where more mature models are able to give advice and guidance to younger girls, and we will help to raise industry-wide awareness through education, as has been integral to the Council of Fashion Designers of America Health Initiative.

4. We will encourage producers to create healthy backstage working conditions, including healthy food options and a respect for privacy. We will encourage casting agents not to keep models unreasonably late.

5. We encourage designers to consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes of their clothing, which limits the range of women who can be photographed in their clothes, and encourages the use of extremely thin models.

6. We will be ambassadors for the message of healthy body image.

Models Direct believes that a move like this can only be positive and is long overdue!
What are your thoughts on Vogue’s ‘Health Initiative’?