24/10/2017
Thrilled with this publication featuring The Model's Health Pledge, Marvy Rieder, Nimue Smit and Vogue Nederland's chief Karin Swerink!
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/look-but-dont-touch-models-fight-back-against-harassment-in-the-fashion-industry-c7td0v5n8
A 'snippet':
Last week Nimuë Smit helped to launch The Model’s Health Pledge, a project that aims to safeguard vulnerable models and prevent abuse. The first initiative of its kind, the project challenges magazines, modelling agencies, clients and others to sign up to a code of practice that includes reasonable workload, responsible nutrition and the avoidance of misconduct. Any model working in the Netherlands who believes the code is being violated can use its website to make an anonymous submission. Within five days his or her case will be taken up by an independent vertrouwenspersoon (trustworthy person). In theory the measures taken could range from a discreet conversation with a photographer’s agent to the public revocation of the project’s kitemark.
French legislation, which requires models to hold a doctor’s note stating that they are not dangerously underweight, has been criticised for being patriarchal and simplistic, but it is hoped that the new Dutch system (motto: “without ethics, no aesthetics”) will be more holistic. The model Marvy Rieder, formerly a face for Armani, sits on the pledge’s advisory board and speaks of the importance of considering “all the signs” when evaluating welfare. “We want the Model’s Health Pledge to be a sophisticated, integrated and transparent approach.”
The editor-in-chief of Vogue Nederland, Karin Swerink, is also a signatory. “It’s important that we have a proper dialogue, a real conversation with models without the direct intervention of the government,” she says. “I’m already used to having a quiet word with an agent if a girl is too thin or too tired. On a shoot we’re a team and the older members of the team have a responsibility towards the younger ones.”
Thanks to Blanche the Agency and Mark Smith!
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