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Underage models will not walk in Fashion Week

With New York Fashion Week rapidly approaching, CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg and CEO Steven Kolb, released an updated Health Initiative Guideline statement on Tuesday, asking designers to card models before shows.

Remember the underage model's parents who sued Urban Outfitters and a photographer for distributing "blatantly salacious" photos of their precious daughter, posing in a "spread eagle position" on a bike in a provocative manner?

That model's name is Hailey Clauson, and it turns out she is not a first-time offender of underage runway controversy. The Ford model also walked in designer Diane von Furstenberg's Fall 2011 show when she was 15, only for Diane to discover her age a week after the incident.


Upon revelation, von Furstenberg released this statement to her colleagues in February:

"In spite of me repeating that to my production and casting people, one girl slipped through the cracks. One girl who will be 16 in March walked my show last week! I was horrified and terribly embarrassed. From now on I will instruct my casting people to demand ID's. I encourage you to do the same."

Now, with New York Fashion Week rapidly approaching, CFDA president von Furstenberg and CEO Steven Kolb, released an updated Health Initiative Guideline statement on Tuesday to prevent a similar future incident. The two top dogs of the CFDA recommended to designers that models be carded on the day of a show, to ensure that they are at least 16 years old. "The casting agents for the Diane von Furstenberg show will be doing this and we encourage others to do the same," they wrote.

The statement also says that top modeling agencies like Elite, Ford, IMG, Wilhelmina, and others have pledged not to send out any models under the age of 16 for runway shows.

How young is too young in the world of modeling?

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