Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos participates in a fashion show in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Aug. 2, 2006. She died later in the day.

AP

FASHION

Fashionably uncooperative

Industry execs nix medical exams

London Fashion Week organizers have dropped plans that likely would have barred many size-zero models from the catwalk after industry executives around the world refused to cooperate.

Hilary Riva of the British Fashion Council said her international counterparts complained that proposals to make catwalk models pass a medical exam were expensive and intrusive.

“From our conversations with our international counterparts in New York, Milan and Paris it has become clear that they do not recognize the need for an international health certificate,” Riva said in an open letter recently posted on the council’s Web site.

The idea of having such certificates grew out of an industry commission set up last year to address public concerns that excessive dieting damages the health of models and creates unrealistic expectations for young women.

Pressure on the industry has intensified in recent years, particular after models in Brazil and Uruguay collapsed and died, apparently from medical complications arising from their ultra-thin stature. One of the models, Luisel Ramos, 22, collapsed soon after stepping off the runway in August 2006; months later, her 18-year-old sister also was found dead, each reportedly died of anorexia-linked heart attacks.

Some of the panel’s recommendations, including banning models under 16 from London Fashion Week catwalks and giving models a quiet room with food backstage, have been already been adopted. Riva said a medical exam and a certificate showing good physical and mental health would only work if it was adopted internationally.

The medical exams would have cost around $500 — the same as the average fee a model receives for appearing in one show during London Fashion Week.

Council spokeswoman Caroline Rush said the extra cost might have deterred some models appearing in the London shows — particularly if they could have gone elsewhere without paying the fee.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America has said it did not believe medical exams benefit models. In 2007, it adopted a voluntary health policy, recommending that models under 16 not be used in runway shows, educating the industry about the early signs of eating disorders and having models get professional help if needed.

The Chambre Syndicale in Paris, which regulates the marketing for high fashion items in France, decided it could not be held responsible for the women who model the clothes. Italy’s Camera Nazionale della Moda, which organizes Milan’s fashion shows, approved its own initiative that does include certification of a model’s good health. It said it prefers self-regulation to a broader international proposal.

The next round of women’s wear runway shows, previewing styles for next spring, begins Sept. 5 in New York.

HEALTH

Scale not only gauge of fitness

Don’t get rid of that scale yet. Just don’t believe everything you think it tells you. There are different and better ways of measuring fitness success.

• The old stair/hill test: How winded do you get climbing those flights of stairs at the office or that hill down the street? Use that as a gauge. As your workout program progresses, you should be less winded.

The same gauge holds true for playing with the kids and grandkids. They seem to have endless energy; how long can you play with them before having to sit back and rest awhile?

• Everyday life: Does yard work gradually become easier? How about the housework — carrying laundry or the vacuum cleaner up and down stairs? Can you stay in the garden longer or do more work in a shorter time? Are the neck and back muscles hurting less?

• The weight might be the same, but what’s the body fat percentage now? Body mass index is a horrible indicator of your fitness level. So, please, don’t use it.

Find a way to get your body fat checked. Electronic impedance devices aren’t the most accurate gauges for one-time measurements. But using these and taking a body fat percentage at the same time every day gives you better sense of what’s happening with your nutritional and exercise program.

• Feelings: How are yours? Only you can measure this. Are you feeling better about your energy levels and the things you’re able to make your body do?