Ondira Hardin and Thairina Garcia: two 14-year-old models who walked in the Marc Jacobs autumn/winter 2012 show. Photo: Vladimir Potop

Pre-New York Fashion Week, chairman of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America), Diane von Furstenberg, released an exhaustive list of guidelines aimed at keeping models fit. Supplying healthy meals on fittings, professional help for those struggling with eating disorders and checking IDs to ensure models are over 16 pre-shows were just some of the items on the modelling check list. But it seems this last one has already been forgotten. Less than two weeks after the list was released, top designer Marc Jacobs has sent two underage models down his autumn/winter 2012 catwalk on Monday, February 13. Brazilian model Thairina Garcia and star of the winter 2011 Prada campaign, Ondira Hardin, both took to the catwalk despite the fact that they are both, reportedly, 14 years-old. Far from being apologetic, Jacobs has defended his choice of models, insisting that the CFDA’s Health Initiative cannot influence his shows: “I do the show the way I think it should be and not the way somebody tells me it should be,” he told the New York Continue reading →