The idea of preventing unhealthily underweight models from working in the fashion industry is gaining momentum throughout the most important fashion hubs of the world. Italy demands health certificates from models working at catwalk shows in Milan, and Spain already bars models below a certain BMI from partaking in Madrid fashion shows.

France has recently passed new legislation which imposes heavy fines of up to £55,000 on modelling agencies that employ supposedly malnourished models with very low BMI values. Although the new laws are still yet to define the exact value of BMI under which the penalties will be applied, it is likely to be between 16 and 18.

Despite receiving much criticism in the past, BMI is still widely used as a reliable indicator of human health. It is important, however, to consider the limitations of BMI when making a decision as important as preventing a person from working, especially in fashion, which may be the aspiration of many young people. For example, BMI often falls flat when calculated for a tall person with high muscle mass and density, incorrectly placing them in the ‘overweight’ category, when, in fact, they could be in excellent physical condition. BMI is a flawed measure of ‘healthiness’ and therefore, perhaps a much better approach would be to consider a greater range of health indicators rather than just one which uses average population values.

Furthermore, it seems desperately unfair that in the current state of affairs, models classed as underweight according to BMI face work restrictions, while plus size models do not. Currently this is true even if the plus size model in question happens to fall into the overweight, or even the obese categories. If we are to ban models that have unhealthily low BMI values from working, then surely, by the same logic, we should also be banning models with unhealthily high BMIs, not encouraging them in the name of ‘body positivity’.

Models are often scouted when they are very young and still growing, up to the ages of 18 and 19 (the average age females and males, respectively, stop growing). At that age, my own BMI was 17, no matter how much or how little I exercised and regardless of the food I ate. Despite what was implied by my BMI, I was never unhealthy or malnourished. It therefore seems inappropriate to use BMI to decide whether or not to allow young models to work; especially in a time full of opportunity, when they could be just starting their careers. Surely, the only way to justify this decision would be to impose the same restrictions on overweight models, which is likely to be unpopular, given the demographic of the majority of Western consumers.

Game-changing decisions, such as those recently made in France, do indeed have the potential to start combatting the high levels of anorexia found in and around the fashion industry. It would be nice to see any money taken in the form of fines from large agencies translated into improved healthcare and support for those suffering from body-image related mental illnesses.

However, using BMI as the sole measure to determine whether a model is healthy enough to work in the industry, whether over or underweight, seems to be extremely risky as a strategy.