Mail on line, January 2103. Ultra-skinny models are to be confined to history after a law came into effect in Israel for the start of 2013. Only healthy looking models with a Body Mass Index of more than 18.5, such as the country’s most famous export, Bar Refaeli, will be able to work there.
The law, approved by the Knesset (the government’s legislating branch) last March, requires models to produce a medical report showing they have maintained a healthy BMI for three months before a shoot or catwalk show.
It also bans the use of models who ‘appear underweight’, meaning advertisers are not allowed to make a model’s body look thinner than it really is using air-brushing.
Brands who digitally alter photographs to trim away unwanted weight from models will have to clearly mark the resulting images to indicate that they have been manipulated.
The law was brought in to discourage the idealisation of excessively thin bodies following a rise in eating disorders in Israeli society, particularly among young girls.
Bar Rafaeli is believed to have a healthy BMI of 18.8, at 5ft 8in and 9st 1lb. But the 27-year-old is clearly curvier than some others, and has regularly appeared in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, as well as modelling for Ralph Lauren, Reebok, Gap and Marks & Spencer.
The new law was drafted by Danny Danon of right-wing party the Likud and Rachel Adatto of centrist/liberal party Kadima, the Times of Israelreported.