First there was 10-year-old Thylane Loubry Blondeau, the little girl with the sexy magazine photos. Then came Jours Après Lunes, the French kiddlie lingerie line.
The tipping point, perhaps? 15-year-old Hailey Clauson's lawsuit over her inappropriate appearance on Urban Outfitters merchandise.
This summer's controversies surrounding fashion's unsettling glamorization of young girls have come to a head: the Council of Fashion Designers of America has introduced a guideline for New York Fashion Week recommending that models produce a valid ID the day they walk the runway proving that they are at least 16 years old, Women's Wear Daily reports.
The guideline, part of the CFDA's Health as Beauty and Diversity campaign, makes a big statement on the age debate. CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg found herself in hot water just last season when she unwittingly cast Clauson, not yet 16 years old, in her own runway show.
Now DVF and American fashion's governing body is trying to make sure that well-intentioned professionals like von Furstenberg are not hiring too young, too vulnerable models to walk fashion's biggest stage.
We wonder, however, where DVF and her CFDA stands on fashion's similarly youth-obsessed ad campaigns, with Dakota Fanning for Marc Jacobs fragrance, 13-year-old sister Elle for Marc by Marc Jacobs and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld for Miu Miu. Is there a difference between posing for print ads and walking the runway?
Read more at WWD.com and sound off below.