Alex Perry Regrets Skinny Model

Alex Perry admits he “made a bad call” over the appearance of a super-slim model in his April 7 fashion week show—a move which has reignited debate over the industry’s health standards.

Appearing on KIIS 1065’s Kyle & Jackie O show this morning, “I was shocked, and I thought, ‘I’ve put that out there and I’ve got to put it my hand up and say it was wrong,’” said Perry of Melbourne model Cassi van den Dungen’s shock runway outing, which prompted a concerned call to her agent from Marie Claire editor Jackie Frank, who tells WHO “It’s not necessary for a girl of that size to come down [the runway] at Australian fashion week.”

Having met with 1.77m Van den Dungen the night before his show, “I should’ve actually called it then and there,” said Perry. “I wasn’t paying attention the way that I should’ve been.”

“For me, it went against everything personally that I believe in about how a girl should look and what the kind of message is that we should send visually for people,” added the designer, who mentored ultra-thin Van den Dungen when she was a contestant on Australia’s Next Top Model in 2009.

“We discuss this topic every year…as an industry we need to sit down and say what is acceptable and what’s not … It’s not about the size…it’s the weight that that girl appears and what that image is that we’re sending out to girls.”

Perry wasn’t the only designer to come under fire for using super-slim clotheshorses, with social commentator Mia Freedman calling Carla Zampatti’s April 6 show, “The Hunger Games – I mean Fashion Week.”

Hitting back at her critics, Van den Dungen, who has an 18-month-old son, spent yesterday posting pictures of the food backstage at the autumn/winter shows. “Love catering at fashion week,” she captioned an April 8 Instagram snap. “#LoveMyJob #LoveFood #IAmWhoIAm #DealWithIt.”