Leading fashion houses Gucci, Balenciaga, and Saint Laurent will no longer employ models under the age of 18 for adult catwalk shows or in advertising campaigns.
The new age restriction will be enforced in early 2020.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, François-Henri Pinault at Kering Group (which owns the brands), explained the decision, saying, “As a global Luxury group, we are conscious of the influence exerted on younger generations in particular by the images produced by our Houses. We believe that we have a responsibility to put forward the best possible practices in the Luxury sector and we hope to create a movement that will encourage others to follow suit.”
In 2017, both Kering and a rival fashion group LVMH which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Celine and Givenchy, signed a charter agreeing to stop hiring models who were under the age of 16, also banning size 32 for women and size 42 for men from their casting requirements.
Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering’s chief sustainability officer, added: “In our view, the physiological and psychological maturity of models aged over 18 seems more appropriate to the rhythm and demands that are involved in this profession. We are also aware of the role-model element that images produced by our Houses can represent for certain groups of people.”
This isn’t the first time the world of fashion has reconsidered the age of its runway models – in 2018, Vogue and the CFDA similarly decided they would no longer hire any models under the age of 18 (reported by Refinery29). At the time, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) made a similar declaration – its CEO Steven Kolb said: “Young models are still developing. There can be a lack of the confidence, strength, experience, and maturity it takes to deal with the pressures of this work.”
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