Size zero model turned down for being too skinny

LONDON, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - A top London fashion agency rejected a size zero model because she was judged too skinny, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday, september 12th.

Zimbabwe-born Charlotte Carter was told to gain weight if she wanted to work with Models 1, just days before the independent Model Health Inquiry publishes its final report on the ways to protect the lives of supermodels on Friday, and the opening of London Fashion Week the following day.

The Model Health Inquiry recommended in an interim report in July that modelling agencies should have their models checked for eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, but failed to call for women who were too skinny to be banned from London Fashion Week.

"The industry has always put pressure on me to be thin, but I brought my own issues along too," the five-foot 10-inch (178 cm) tall 22-year-old said.

"I can't blame modelling, although it has not helped."

Size zero -- equivalent to size four in Britain, and 32 in France and Spain -- models have sparked concern over the impact they have on young girls, with the British Fashion Council, which runs London Fashion Week, writing to designers before the last event in February, asking them to use only healthy-looking models aged over 16.