One fashion designer forced their models to eat in order to get paid.
Last month, Heidy Rehman, the founder of “ethical British fashion house” Rose & Willard, wrote an article for the Huffington Post to announce her company’s decision to make models contractually obligated to eat in the company’s presence in order to get paid. “The consequence of non-compliance will be that neither she nor her agency will be paid,” wrote Rehman.
In her Huffington Post article, Rehman claims that previous attempts to include a broader range of bodies and hire non-models for Rose & Willard commercials and photo shoots were not “well received.”
She explains:
We are now at a crossroads with regard to whether we continue with professional models or our non-model models. If we do opt for the former we have decided that we will include a non-negotiable contractual clause with the model agency which will state that the model must eat a meal and in our presence. We will not allow her to only eat a tiny morsel and/or suggest she’ll eat later. The consequence of non-compliance will be that neither she nor her agency will be paid.
Yes, it’s a form of nannying but we feel we have a responsibility to protect these young women from an industry which we believe can leave them exploited and puts them under pressure to starve themselves and damage their health and wellbeing.
In the fashion industry, models may be asked to gain or more likely lose weight after a single phone call with their agencies or the brands who hire them. This, of course, comes with major health risks that are worthy of attention. But, forcing a model to eat in front of her bosses in order to get paid hardly seems like a smart idea.
Following the backlash, Rehman told reporters that her words have been “misinterpreted.”
“We have no intention of imposing any form of draconian measures on anyone,” she said. “We shall certainly not be forcing anyone to eat nor placing them under scrutiny while they eat. We also are not going to impose any conditions upon what the model chooses to eat… Our only requirement is that she eats a meal in order to sustain herself.” She also highlighted the contractual nature of this policy, saying, “We are not applying any force. A contract is not force.”
But, as Irem OZekes at Vogue Anonymous asserts, “the very definition of a non-negotiable clause in a contract says otherwise… Non-negotiable” implies that forced food intake is, well, non-negotiable. It’s similarly difficult to misinterpret “the model must eat a meal and in our presence” as anything other than “the model must eat a meal and in our presence.”
“I feel like whether a model doesn’t eat in front of them shouldn’t determine if they get to work with that client,” an anonymous model told Ozekes. “If the model has the ideal look and has the image that the brand is looking for, her eating in front of them or not shouldn’t determine if she gets booked or not.”
It’s scary to think that by joining the fashion industry men and women lose all control of their body and are forced to starve themselves or eat against their will.
