The Fashion Industry encourages people to be creative and dynamic. This might send a positive message, but one can flip through any fashion magazine to see that the industry’s idealized version of beauty still skews healthy body image standards. Models in magazines and on the runway may appear effortlessly thin and chic, but for many, that image is the result of unhealthy eating habits and poor lifestyle choices.

According to the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), “extreme thinness has woven itself into the runway ideal, through the inclusion of some unhealthy body weights of rail-thin, often very young models.” Although the CFDA created a Health Initiative in 2007 to raise awareness of eating disorders in the fashion industry and to promote more realistic body types, have these guidelines really been effective? New York Magazine posted the CFDA guidelines for this season:

• Educate the industry to identify the early warning signs in an individual at risk for developing an eating disorder.
• Encourage models who may have an eating disorder to seek professional help.
• Models who are receiving professional help for an eating disorder should not continue modeling without that professional’s approval.
• Develop workshops for the industry on the nature of eating disorders and how they arise.
• Do not hire models under the age of sixteen for runway shows; check IDs to ensure the age of models.
• Supply healthy meals, snacks, and water backstage and at shoots and provide nutrition and fitness education.

As the CFDA said, “the Health Initiative is about awareness, education, and safety, not policing.” Because the Fashion Industry does not have to follow these guidelines the same way that they are required to obey state and federal law, this explains why pin-thin models still grace the covers of magazines and walk on runways even if they suffer from eating disorders and or are younger than 16.

“You could book the models and think they’re a certain size, and they turn up on the shoot and suddenly they’ve spun into this anorexic situation. And you’re on the spot and you have to get the job done and you have one day to do it, and what do you do?” Grace Coddington, former model and creative director of American Vogue magazine, said while speaking to a crowd at the New York Public Library in 2009

Coddington’s statement illustrates how it is possible to ignore the guidelines without any repercussions. However, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg suggested that this season’s guidelines are stricter compared to previous seasons, especially the guideline ensuring that models are at least sixteen years old to be in a fashion show. “Designers share a responsibility to protect women, and very young girls in particular, within the business, sending the message that beauty is health,” Ms. Von Furstenberg said in an email she sent to numerous designers. But how effective is this message if designers allow girls with eating disorders to walk on runways because they do not know “what else to do?”

Of course, the Fashion Industry is not the single cause for the development of eating disorders. According to the CFDA, “Five percent of women in the United States struggle with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, which are both caused by genetics, neurochemistry, personality, weight-conscious occupations, and sociocultural factors.” But medical experts say studies prove there is a correlation between eating disorders and standards of beauty presented by the fashion industry, which is why the CFDA created the Health Initiative.

If there are no consequences for disregarding the CFDA guidelines, it might be necessary to consider other methods of enforcing a healthier standard of beauty within the fashion industry. One possibility could be imposing a minimum BMI (body mass index) requirement on models working the top fashion shows. This is done in Madrid, where the regional government subsidizes the seasonal fashion show. According to the New York Times, “designers in Madrid have little leverage to oppose the restriction because the Madrid government foots the bill for everything except the clothes.” The CFDA is unlikely to impose this type of regulation because Fashion Week in New York is a much more high-profile event than in Madrid, and New York State does not have the same leverage because it does not financially support the shows.

The CFDA’s Health Initiative is growing support from the fashion community, which will most likely remain a self-regulating organization. On February 9, 2012, The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) commended the CFDA for releasing an updated version of the guidelines to ensure the health of runway models during the upcoming New York Fashion Week, February 9th through the 16th.

It is possible that the American fashion industry does not need regulations. As long as designers, casting directors, agents, fashion-magazine editors and show producers promote healthy body types instead of the current ultra-thin ideal, it may not be necessary for the government to ever get involved.