Model Fashion 2010

Fashion furore over 14yo model

Plans to put a 14-year-old Polish model centre stage at this year's Australian Fashion Week have outraged fashionistas.

Vogue magazine has reportedly refused to feature Monika Jagaciak because of her age.

And Marie Claire editor Jackie Frank wants to know why organisers have chosen an international model to represent the event.

"I think [it] is disappointing that the face of Australian Fashion Week is not an Australian girl, when there are so many fabulous Aussie girls doing so well throughout the world," she said.

Frank thinks the minimum age for models starring in the event should be 16.

"We all know that a 14-year-old is still a baby ... 14 is too young ... At Marie Claire we won't use a 14-year-old because it doesn't appeal to our readers," she said.

Australian Fashion Week organisers have defended the move.

According to their guidelines, models under the age of 16 can strut on the catwalk as long as they are chaperoned and have the full support from the parents.

Frank says there is always a way to justify everything.

"The girls from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia - they start very early," she said.

"I know that everyone is saying that she [Jagaciak] is going to be accompanied by her parents, she is going to be chaperoned, but you've got to understand that a lot of these girls are actually pulling their families out of poverty.

"Of course the parents are going to be supporting them and pushing them because someone of them end up supporting not only their family, but an extended family."