A law passed in 2015 banning extremely thin models from working has come into effect in France this week.
In order to ensure the health and wellbeing of models, they will now be asked to provide a certificate of health from a doctor, including details of their BMI (body mass index), before they can work.
These certificates will have to be presented to their potential employers, and any employer found to not be following the new rules could be hit with a fine of up to 75,000 euros (£63,500) and up to six months in jail.
The health ministry in France has put the new legislation in place in an attempt to tackle eating disorders that arise from typical ideological beauty standards.
France's Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine, said in a statement: "Exposing young people to normative and unrealistic images of bodies leads to a sense of self-depreciation and poor self-esteem that can impact health-related behaviour".
In a further bid to tackle the problem, the country will also be labelling all images that have been retouched with 'photographie retouchée' (retouched photograph) from this date onwards, so that consumers know exactly what version of 'real' they are looking at.
