Sad: Models Are Cheating Anti-Skinny Laws by Wearing Hidden Weights

Well, this is sad. As Racked pointed out, former model Jennifer Sky wrote a piece this week for the New York Observer, questioning whether or not France's new law cracking down on agencies who employ too-skinny models is really the way to prevent anorexia. She explained, "I spoke with a model, let's call her Lauren, who participated in Spanish Fashion Week shortly after their new 'anti-skinny' law was passed. I did Fashion Week in Spain after they enforced a similar law and agencies found a loophole. They gave us underwear to stuff with weighted sandbags so the thinnest of girls had a 'healthy' weight on the scales. I even saw them put weights in their hair." 

Sky goes on to say that she feels the law is "discriminatory and misguided," because although she is thin (her BMI would've been considered underweight when she was a working model), she exercised regularly and loved to eat. She thinks that rather than focusing on BMIs, agencies should be held accountable for better treatment of their underage clients.

What do you think? Do you agree with France's law? Do you disagree like Jennifer Sky? We want to know. Sound off in the comment section below. 

Bobby Schuessler
Market Director

Bobby Schuessler is a fashion editor with over a decade of editorial experience covering shopping, style, and beauty. He's spent over seven years at Who What Wear, currently leading the market team to deliver highly covetable and convertible content. He creates data-driven shopping guides featuring top retialers like Nordstrom, Shopbop, and Net-a-Porter and is at the forefront of Who What Wear's shopping tentpole strategies, including Amazon Prime Day. He also works on branded content initiatives and appears on camera in video and shopping livestream franchises. He has also worked across a variety of other media brands and fashion retailers like Refinery29, PureWow, Men's Health, and Gilt covering commerce, trend reporting, women's and men's fashion, home, and lifestyle.