Is the suntan dead? The fashion establishment is turning its back on the tan for next week's L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, with leading modelling agencies banning their models from using solariums. ''Models make a living out of healthy skin and there is enough evidence to support solariums not being good for the skin,'' says Matthew Anderson, director of Chadwick Models. ''And clients aren't really after the tanned look.''

The ''no sunbed'' campaign organised by SunSmart mirrors the campaign by Cancer Research UK for London Fashion Week which was supported by 11 agencies, including Elite and Next. ''Sunbeds are dangerous, unnecessary, outdated and irrefutably linked to cancer,'' says Sue Heward, SunSmart's manager, calling on Victoria to follow the NSW Government's decision last month to ban solariums by 2015. ''Not only is solarium use harmful to your health but it can prematurely age the skin making it coarse, pigmented, leathery and wrinkled. It is suggested that 80 per cent of wrinkles are due to overexposure to UV radiation from either the sun or solariums.”

Tan-free zone ... Aussie model Alyssa Sutherland's pale skin sends a healthy message.

The thinking goes that if the fashion industry sets an example that a tan is not stylish then young women, who are particularly resistant to health warnings, might be persuaded of the dangers of tanning. But will a week-long event in an already paler-than-average city make much difference? Chadwick Models has long discouraged the use of solariums but some models on its books persist in tanning, says Anderson. ''The younger girls, the teenagers, aren't so bad - they're more in tune with the health thing now. It's the girls aged 20 to 24. 'Too brown, too brown,' we have to say.''

Says Anderson: ''We tick them off if they've been in a solarium. From a practical aspect, with shoots, some clients want a tan, many don't and a solarium tan takes days to get rid of whereas you can scrub a spray tan off fairly easily.''

It has been estimated that each year in Australia, 281 new melanoma cases, 43 melanoma-related deaths, and 2572 new cases of squamous cell carcinoma can be attributed to solarium use. But if models are still allowed to have spray tans at fashion week - and are in fact being encouraged to do so - is it going to get the message across? A tan will surely still be seen as desirable and fashionable.

Anderson says clients are ''not really after a tanned look''. ''The only time is for underwear or swimwear shoots or in the depths of winter when we're shooting something for summer,'' he says. ''A little bit of colour does look a lot better. People look better defined, more toned.''

Do you agree? Do you like having a tan, whether from the spray gun, bottle, sun or even solarium? Do you think the tanned look will ever be unpopular and unfashionable in this land of outdoor living and sunny skies? Can pale ever really be cool - and will pale-skinned models in Melbourne exert any sort of influence? Tan or no tan - what do you think?



