Chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Diane Von Furstenberg, released some rules prior to New York Fashion Week for fashion designers to follow. These guidelines are meant to protect the safety and well-being of the models. The rules include mandatory assistance for those suffering from eating disorders and designers providing healthy meals during fittings. In addition, underage models need to supply ID to prove that they’re 16 years or older.

Although this list was released not long ago, in fact about two weeks ago, Marc Jacobs ignored the regulations and included two underage models in his show. He sent the two 14-year old models down the catwalk for his autumn/winter 2012 show.

The models, Ondira Hardin and Thairina Garcia, hit the runway in Jacobs’ show, held on Monday, February 13. When the New York Times asked Jacobs asked about not following the guidelines, he made the unapologetic remark: “I do the show the way I think it should be and not the way somebody tells me it should be.”

Jacobs continued to support his decision and made the comment that the CFDA can’t influence how he does his shows, despite the rules that have been implemented by the industry.

Jacobs defended his decision by stating that the parents allowed the children to be in the show, and that it shouldn’t be him who has to tell the teens no. Additionally, the designer notes how children are able to be in catalogue ads and act on television and in films. He declared if the child wants to do it and the parents are okay with it, then it doesn’t make sense to deny them.

The CFDA has announced that it has no plans of action against Jacobs since the guidelines are voluntary and it is up to the designers whether or not they want to follow them.

Still, all of this debate is missing the real question: What is up with those hats?

Last updated by admin at May 1, 2013.

Tags: fashion week, marc jacobs, runway style, underage models

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2012 at 3:21 pm and is filed under Beauty Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.