The Guardian 18th February 2007
Elena Miro

Elena Miro

Size 14 models were the first to step on to the catwalk yesterday as Milan Fashion Week launched under strict 'anti-anorexia' rules. For the first time, unhealthily skinny models were banned from shows in the Italian city famous for its high fashion.

But critics said the fact that a collection from Elena Miro, a designer who specialises in clothes for fuller-figured women, kicked off the show was little more than a 'media event' because there were no plans to feature other 'plus size' brands.

The launch comes just days after teenage model Eliana Ramos, from Uruguay, was found dead after extreme dieting. Six months earlier her sister Luisel, also a model, died at a fashion show after following a diet of lettuce and diet cola.

The global furore around the size zero debate has been overshadowing fashion shows across the world. High profile campaigns by politicians and the media to ban the stick-thin models forced leaders of the Italian fashion industry to sign a code of ethics promising to promote 'a healthy and generous image of beauty'.

In Milan, children under 16 are no longer allowed on the catwalk and models have to present a medical certificate to show they are not suffering from an eating disorder.

Mauro Davico, communications director for the Elena Miro brand, said larger models were the future. 'We want to give a message about the real woman,' he said. 'This kind of model, who is so happy, is a pleasure to see on the catwalk. They are the future of the fashion industry.'

Others were less hopeful of a change, pointing out that this was the third year that Elena Miro had launched the Milan show.