WireImage.com: Pasarela Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2007

	Agatha Ruiz De La Prada (30)
	Duyos (9)

Pasarela Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2007

Inciting controversy on catwalks around the world, this fall’s Pasarela Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week for the Spring/Summer 2007 season will be notable not only for the inventive fashions gracing the runway, but also for the health and well-being of the models who wear them. In an unprecedented move, Madrid’s regional government, which is co-sponsoring the shows, required that all models meet a minimum height-to-weight ratio in order to participate. The ratio was determined in collaboration with a Spanish health organization, and was based on the widely-recognized Body Mass Index (BMI) scale, which helps determine whether an individual is of a healthy weight.

Yet while officials from major fashion centers such as Milan have spoken out strongly in favor of adopting similar rules for their own fashion weeks, Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer, which is a major backer of London Fashion Week, has openly opposed such restrictions. Rose has stated that such a ban interferes with designers’ creativity, while proponents of the rule argue that it helps protect young women from developing a distorted body image. The new rule prevented about one-third of the models who participated in last year's Madrid Fashion Week from walking the runways this year.