One of the main backers of London Fashion Week Sunday rejected British government calls for a ban on wafer-thin models as the fashion industry faced a furor over its catwalks.

Marks and Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose, who is chairman of the British Fashion Council that is organizing the event starting Monday, tells Reuters, "Outright bans and indeed legislation is definitely not a route we want to go down."

Rose's move comes after a plea from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell for London to follow Madrid's example and ban skinny models.

Madrid fashion organizers have taken the unprecedented step of rejecting underweight women, saying models with a body mass index (BMI) -- a ratio of height to weight -- below 18 are not allowed to appear at the shows.

Urging London to follow Madrid's example, Jowell said in a statement, "The fashion industry's promotion of beauty as meaning stick thin is damaging to young girls' self-image and to their health. The fashion industry is hugely powerful in shaping the attitude of teenage girls and their feelings about themselves."

Rejecting her call, Rose said "Are we going to ask people to walk through detectors for BMI and say I'm sorry you're rejected? That would be quite difficult."

Rose went on to tell Sky News, "Body Mass is just an indication. It is just a guide. You cannot use it as an absolute," adding that, "We just need to be reasonable, educate people, give them the facts and let them make up their own minds." Meanwhile, the ban on super-skinny fashion models seemed to be picking up speed, with the mayor of Milan, Letizia Moratti, saying she will seek a similar ban for Milan Fashion Week -- starting in a week's time -- unless it can find a solution to "sick" looking models.