Model reveals tricks used to break controversial runway weight laws

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Former model Jennifer Sky, 38, claims that models are being asked to stuff their underwear with sandbags so they can clock in at a 'healthy' weight
The activist says she is against France's new law, which bars models from walking the runway if their body mass index is deemed too low

Published: 17:21 EST, 23 April 2015 | Updated: 18:41 EST, 23 April 2015

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Europe's controversial new laws banning ultra-thin models from strutting down the catwalk may be doing more harm than good as models are reportedly going to extreme measures to ensure they clock in at a 'healthy' weight when they hop on the scale - including stuffing their underwear with sandbags.

Earlier this month France passed a new law that bars models from walking the runway if their body mass index is deemed too low, in an attempt to combat anorexia. And the pressure is on for agencies who can face a fines of up to $80,000 and six months in prison for employing too-thin models.

But former model Jennifer Sky, 38, from Brooklyn, New York, has revealed in an op-ed for the New York Observer that the fashion industry has already found a way around the regulations, explaining that thin models are now resorting to wearing weighted Spanx in order to cheat the new BMI standards.

New kind of pressure: Former model Jennifer Sky, pictured in 2013 (R) and 2003 (L), has reported that models are being asked to wear Spanx underwear stuffed with sandbags, so they can clock in at a 'healthy' weight

Different rules: Models can be seen walking down the runway at the Masha Ma show in March at Paris Fashion Week. France recently passed a law banning models from the catwalk if their body mass index is too low

An anonymous model, referred to in the piece as 'Lauren', told Jennifer that she participated in Spanish Fashion Week, sometime after the country passed its new weight law in 2006 and recalled being asked to hide weights in her undergarments.

'They gave us Spanx underwear to stuff with weighted sandbags so the thinnest of girls had a "healthy" weight on the scales,' Lauren said. 'I even saw them put weights in their hair.'

Jennifer went on to say that she hopes the US does not try to pass this 'discriminatory and misguided' because of its negative affect on naturally thin women.

She noted that when she was a teenager she too would have been deemed underweight because BMI calculations, which are based on weight and height, don't take age, sex or genetic body shape into account.

'At 16, when I was working as a fashion model, I weighed 115 pounds and was 5’7” 1/2,' she wrote. 'I exercised regularly and really loved to eat Subway veggie sandwiches and drink McDonald’s vanilla milkshakes.'

Major changes: Models can be seen strutting down the catwalk during the YDE show at Paris Fashion Week in March. Agencies who employ 'too-thin' models face large fines and even jail time under the new French law

She continued: 'I was not anorexic or starving - I was definitely over-worked. I was simply a naturally thin teenager with a powerful teenage metabolic system.'

Jennifer noted that as a teen with a BMI of 18.0, she would most certainly have been considered 'underweight'; while the exact BMI requirements for models working in France have not been released, the World Health Organization considers people with a BMI below 18.5 to be underweight and at risk of being malnourished.

And while Jennifer says that, 22 years later her current measurements finally put her at a 'normal' 21.0, her BMI for most of her modeling career would have been deemed too dangerous for her to work under the new laws.

While the model rights activist applauded the French government for attempting to protect the health of 'these young working professionals', she and Lauren both agreed that outlawing skinny altogether is not the answer.

'I think a better solution is to raise the age limit for models to 18,' Lauren told Jennifer. 'Many ultra-thin models are simply still going through puberty, and allowing their bodies to form before their career would be beneficial to all.'

Model rights activist: Jennifer spoke with Megan Alexander (R) about trafficking, abuse, and child labor problems within the fashion industry on Inside Edition in February

Strict rules: The 38-year-old, who snapped this 'Post Fashion Week' selfie in February, noted her BMI would have been considered too low when she was a healthy 16-year-old model because she had a fast metabolism

Jennifer added that instead of putting restrictions on the size of young models, the French government should 'look to the modeling agencies who freely act as employment agencies without the responsibilities of treating their client-models as working professionals'.

Because models are considered independent contractors in the US, standard employment laws, which allow workers mandatory breaks, compensation for injuries and protection from sexual harassment, do not apply.

Sara Ziff, who is a model and founder of The Model Alliance organization, told Think Progress in March that she is also against the new French law because legislating body mass standards is not the same thing as the fashion industry promoting a 'healthy ideal'.

'BMI suggests there are distinct categories of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese, with sharp boundaries that hinge on a decimal place, which is simply not true,' she explained. 'It is unfair and unreasonable to ban healthy models from working just because they have a relatively low BMI.'

Former anorexic has become a curvy model (related)