The statement, which is a six-point pact called "The Health Initiative," was published in the June issue of all 19 international editions of Vogue. The Initiative is aimed at promoting a healthier body image within the fashion industry which has been criticized for promoting dangerously low body weights.
"As one of the fashion industry's most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference," said editor Alexandra Shulman in the announcement, adding that the Initiative will "build on the successful work that the Council of Fashion Designers of America with the support of American Vogue in the US and the British Fashion Council in the UK have already begun to encourage a healthier approach to body image within the industry."
In line with the Health Initiative, the international issues of Vogue jointly pledge - among other things - to "work with models who, in our view, are healthy and help to promote a healthy body image" and to "be ambassadors for the message of healthy body image".
The magazine also promised to give better care to their models, including protecting their privacy and providing them with healthier foods and drinks backstage at shoots and fashion shows.
According to The Daily Mail, this is not the first time Ms. Shulman has spoken out about the fashion industry's penchant for anorexic models. In 2009, she wrote a letter to major fashion houses complaining that the practice of providing tiny sample sizes forced the industry to hire models "with jutting bones and no breasts or hips" because they were the only women who could fit into the clothes.
In the new statement, Vogue editors say they will encourage designers "to consider the consequences of unrealistically small sample sizes of their clothing, which limits the range of women who can be photographed in their clothes, and encourages the use of extremely thin models."
The magazine has also promised to contact modeling agencies and ask them not to send underage girls. Even though girls under 16 are banned from catwalks in London and the U.S., this is the first time a magazine has issued similar standards of its own.
Sara Ziff, a 29 year-old former teen model and founder of The Model Alliance, a US union aimed at improving working conditions in the fashion industry, praised the move.
"Most editions of Vogue regularly hire models who are minors, so for Vogue to commit to no longer using models under the age of 16 marks an evolution in the industry," Ziff told the Mail.
Her own research found that more than half of models start working between the ages of 13 and 16.
In addition to agreeing not to knowingly work with models under 16 or those with eating disorders, the Vogue pact also says the magazines will help "structure mentoring programs" for younger models and raise awareness of the problem of model health.
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