Call on the British Fashion Council to act. Copy and paste the template below, or write your own and send to [email protected]
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For the attention of Natalie Massenet, Chair, British Fashion Council
Dear Ms. Massenet,
It is time for the fashion industry to recognise that it can and must affect positive change for on presentation of body-image.
I back the #NoSizeFitsAll campaign, created by the Women’s Equality Party. The campaign is calling for the fashion industry to tackle the presentation and idolisation of a uniform body type, which has caused countless damage to fashion models, as well as having much wider-reaching consequences.
28 published empirical studies from the UK, Europe, North America and Australia have found that media images have a direct impact on how negatively or positively we view our bodies, with negative body image putting someone at a considerably heightened risk of developing an eating disorder.
Eating disorders affect 1.6 million people in the UK, 89% of whom are female. 14-25 year olds are the demographic most affected by an eating disorder, with 5% of girls and women suffering from anorexia—the most-deadly psychiatric disease (10-20% of cases are fatal).
The Women’s Equality Party calls for a commitment from the British Fashion Council to ensure fashion designers showing at London Fashion Week show 2 different sample sizes in every range, one of which must be a UK size 12 and above.
This is the first of four “asks” aimed at dealing with these issues. Read the full list of asks and more details about the campaign at womensequality.org.uk/nosizefitsall
Will you make this commitment to bring about positive change?
Yours Sincerely,
[INSERT NAME]
Email to [email protected]
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Facebook TwitterAs a stylist working in the fashion industry for over 10 years I am forced to use sample sizes that are so small that regularly even the models cannot fit into them. These girls are often teenagers who are already very thin, whether naturally or not, and the tiny size of the clothes is a constant challenge. I would love to work with models of different sizes – even just a very normal and slim size 8 or 10 – but the restriction of the sample sizes makes this almost impossible.
I urge you to take this issue seriously, as women in the fashion industry we should all be fighting for this change.
As a dual qualified general and mental health nurse I have counselled many women about their body image during my long career and am well aware of the pressures some women, especially the young and/or vulnerable, feel to look a certain way. It is time for the British fashion industry to accept some responsibility for creating an image of women that is unnatural for the majority and can cause mental and physical damage for the rest. At a time when we are learning to celebrate other differences such as sexuality, colour and race it is outrageous and hugely sexist to continue to support such stereotyping.