The Danish government has made inquiries into the contentious case concerning a Danish model being scrapped by Louis Vuitton for being “too big”.
The health minister, Ellen Trane Nørbye, has penned a letter to the French fashion company – in co-operation with the Danish Fashion Institute – urging it to adhere to the principles of the Danish fashion industry’s ethical guidelines aimed at curbing unrealistic beauty ideals and eating disorders.
“We do it to put focus on how Danish girls mirror the models they see on the catwalk. So the fashion companies also have a responsibility to not create a completely skewed image of what is normal,” Nørbye told DR Nyheder.
“And when they want insanely thin models, it unfortunately also sends a wrong signal that can lead to poor self-worth and eating disorders among young people.”
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Traumatic in Tokyo
The issue hit the headlines in mid-May when the Danish model Ulrikke Louis Lahn Høyer sparked a heated debate with a Facebook post after being axed by fashion giant Louis Vuitton for being “too big”.
Høyer, 21, completed a fitting in Paris and was scheduled to appear on the catwalk for a show in Tokyo, but was dropped shortly before after being told by a French casting agent that she had “a very bloated stomach”, “bloated face”, and that “Ulrikke needs to drink only water for the next 24 hours”.
“This is not about me being cancelled from a show, I’ve tried that before (all girls on my level have) you win some and you lose some that’s the game,” Høyer wrote on Facebook last month.
“But I cannot accept the ‘normality’ in the behaviour of people like this. They find pleasure in power over young girls and will go to the extreme to force an eating disorder on you. If this comes from them or some of the fashion houses I don’t know, as I’ve only been dealing with the casters”
So far, Louis Vuitton has not responded to the Danish inquiry.
