Jameela Jamil has hit out at fashion designers whose “tiny, tiny, little samples” are so “extreme”, they cause the women who wear them to starve themselves.

The model and presenter posted her impassioned plea via a Twitter video this weekend, after attending a high-fashion shoot in which her “very expensive” designer dress ripped halfway through.

“It exploded at the point of my ass,” Jamil says. “I mean EXPLODED open, tore the whole thing open, no one else can wear it today.”

The body positive activist says the crux of the problem lies in industry designers who make gowns “really not much bigger than that which would be worn by a child”.

“I work in this business and I can see how little people eat” in order to fit into UK size 6 dresses, continues Jamil. 

She explains that this then has a damaging trickle-down effect. When we, the public, see models wearing the unrealistic sample sizes in magazines, we assume that’s the way our bodies should be, too. 

For a long time, says Jamil, she assumed that not fitting into a sample dress on shoots was her issue; but she now recognises it as a problem endemic to the industry at large.

The actress calls on more designers to follow the lead of Christian Siriano, who has developed a reputation for championing women of all shapes and sizes with his creations.

“So to the designer whose dress exploded open on my ass: shame on you, not shame on me,” she concludes. “I’m 33, and I’m 5’10 and I’m a size 6 [UK size 10] so I shouldn’t be exploding out of anything, nor should anyone.”

Hear, hear.

Images: Getty