Thin models spur weight debate on runways

NEW YORK -- Are models too thin? That's the question of the moment in fashion capitals across the world.\nNew York Fashion Week came and went last month with little talk on the issue, other than a few fashion-show regulars noting that they were seeing even more ribs and vertebra than usual.\nMeanwhile, Madrid banned ultra-thin models from appearing in its Fashion Week. The British culture secretary urged London to do the same, but organizers rejected her plea, saying that designers deserved creative control of their catwalk.\nIt was announced that in Milan, Italy, models will soon have to present a health certificate to appear on the runway, just like athletes need to do before playing competitive sports.\nCatwalkers -- now mostly an anonymous group of models since big names like Daria Werbowy, Carmen Kass and Karolina Kurkova seem to eschew the runway in favor of ad work -- are the primary target.\n"The place you tend to see very thin is the runway, and models on the runway tend to reflect trends in fashion design," says Katie Ford, CEO of Ford Models. After a parade of "womanly" models in the 1980s, "The counter-fashion trend in the '90s was grunge. That was a look that appealed to very young people. It was almost the opposite of womanly. The models were androgynous, very thin -- heroin chic, which ended pretty quickly because people rebelled against it -- but on the runway, some of that stayed on."\nWhile the debate over runway models has created lots of headline, runway modeling is only a small chunk of the business. Catalogs, advertising and magazine editorial pages spend far more money on models -- and they also are seen by a much bigger audience.\nThose models are still slimmer than most American women, but they are more likely to be fit.\nWitness some of the nation's most popular models, including Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum and Gisele Bundchen. They're all pop culture queens, and no one could say they look hanger thin, even though they're certainly slim and trim. "Womanly" superstars of the '80s and '90s -- Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington -- are also still going strong.