Luxury fashion brands including Gucci, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent have pledged to stop using models under the age of 18.
The French fashion group Kering, which owns the brands, announced it would no longer hire under-18 models to represent adults on both the catwalk and in advertising campaigns.
Fashion brands pledge to stop usage of underage models
The policy will come into effect early next year, in time for the autumn/winter collections.
Marie-Claire Daveu, chief sustainability officer, added that “the physiological and psychological maturity of models aged over 18 seems more appropriate to the rhythm and demands” involved in the fashion industry.
However, she also warned that it lacks a “mechanism for actual enforcement” and that she fears the pledge could “amount to little more than lip service to critical issues that have plagued the industry for far too long”.
It vowed to not use under-18 models in editorial shoots unless they were the subject of an article.
“Vogue, along with a number of other publications, has played a role in making it routine for children - since that’s what they are - to be dressed and marketed as glamorous adults,” it announced in an editorial.
”No more: It’s not right for us, it’s not right for our readers, and it’s not right for the young models competing to appear in these pages. While we can’t rewrite the past, we can commit to a better future.
