EU-DIGEST

Labels: EU, Europe, Fashion

Spain Dumps Skinny Dummies, Designers Buy Into Goal Of Healthier Body Image

Vanesa Lopez gazed at the mannequin in the store window and burst out laughing. It was mostly leg, impossibly long and thin, with shorts hugging a tiny waist and a frilly top on delicate shoulders. "That's out of my league," said Lopez, a 30-year-old interior decorator with a medium build. "You see it and say, 'Wow, I'd like to look like that."'

Such skeletal fashion dummies, symbols of a culture blamed for fueling a preoccupation with weight, are now doomed in Spain under a groundbreaking accord between the health ministry and major retailers including Zara and Mango.

Today's Socialist government, vigorously assertive on a bevy of social issues ranging from gay marriage to gender violence, is now taking aim at the fashion world as a source of risky thought and behavior.

An estimated one in five Spanish women aged 13-22 suffer from an eating disorder, placing Spain roughly on par with its European neighbors, said Gonzalo Morande, a physician who runs the eating disorders department at Madrid's Nino Jesus Hospital. What sets Spain apart is that, whereas such illnesses became prevalent roughly 20 years ago elsewhere in Europe, Spain got a later start but caught up quickly. The same applies to drug use and obesity, a category in which Spain now surpasses the rest of Europe among young people, Morande said.

Labels: Fashion, Government, Health