If the increasingly vociferous demands for diversity on the runway should have taught us anything, it is that consumers increasingly want to see models who look like them — all kinds of them. And most consumers of adult fashion are, shocking as it may seem, actual adults.

To be fair, there has been some movement between then and now. There is unquestionably heightened awareness within the industry, not to mention within the law, when it comes to the need to protect underage girls working in a grown-up world. (Still, it is revealing that models are almost always referred to as “girls” by the industry itself; they aren’t called “women.”)

Three years ago, all 21 international Vogues signed and published a pact pledging that they would not use models under 16 (though this has occasionally been circumvented, as in the case of Kaia Gerber, who recently appeared in Italian Vogue, the photos used as part of an “age issue”). In 2007, both the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council issued health guidelines that strongly recommended (in the case of the American group) and required (the British council) that designers use models who were at least 16 for runway shows.

In 2013, after lobbying from the CFDA and the Model Alliance, the New York State Legislature passed a law stating that all models under 18 must be treated as child performers, with all the related regulations, from limited work hours to trust accounts, supervision and checkups (and that brands must have a permit from the state Department of Labor, as must the models).

Meanwhile, Ivan Bart, president of IMG models, the agency that represents Ms. Gerber, said it does not allow models under the age of 16 to do runway work. And according to a spokesman for Dior, its 14-year-old, Ms. Mechetner, was chaperoned at all times and has returned to Israel for school, her future relationship with the brand to be determined.