Those in favor of tanning maintain that it makes you appear younger and healthier, and can even make you look better in your clothes. But I consider myself an anti-tanner and wholeheartedly disagree with such claims.

And the coordinators of England’s Liverpool Fashion Week — which begins Monday — can also be labeled as anti-tanners. They have instated a ban on tanning beds, forbidding the show’s models from using them.

This further shows that fashion is not just about clothes: It is about achieving a certain “look.” Looks are about styling and accessorizing and are more about the way you carry yourself in your chosen ensemble than the individual articles of clothing.

For example, consider the myriad of looks you can achieve with a little black dress. You can step into a pair of nude heels, throw on some silver bangles and create a very subdued, elegant look.  Or you can slap on a pair of cowboy boots, add a jean jacket and create a country look. The choice is yours and the possibilities are endless.

A more insidious component of any given look, though, is whether or not you decide to tan. For decades, men and women of all ages have flocked to beaches and tanning beds, all in search of that sun-kissed glow, eschewing caveats of skin cancer and premature aging by refusing to slather on any sunscreen.

Liverpool Fashion Week is the first of any of the fashion weeks to implement a ban on models using tanning beds. They did so not only to protect the skin health of the models, but also to send the message to show-goers and women everywhere that they do not have to cook themselves in a tanning bed to look beautiful and fashionable.

I applaud Liverpool Fashion Week’s actions. I think it is high time the rest of the fashion world got on the anti-sun — and simulated sun — bandwagon.

I am not advocating that people lock themselves indoors and adapt a vampiric lifestyle in an effort to avoid every ray of sunshine. But it is time for tanning beds to be a relic of the past. And if you don’t believe that tanning is positively awful for your skin, I have just two words for you: Tan Mom.

Leather boots and handbags — or their animal-friendly substitutes — are a fashion do, but having skin that resembles leather is definitely a fashion don’t. The fashion industry often receives its fair share of negative attention for entrenching the notion that looking thin to the point of emaciation is attractive and the “look” for which women should strive.

While this aesthetic is both physically and mentally detrimental and should be rigorously discouraged, the issue of skin health is equally important. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and abusing it by tanning can result in health issues that are just as grave as the ones that result from food deprivation.

A safer tanning alternative is sunless tanning. The models at Liverpool Fashion Week will be permitted to spray tan or apply buildable self-tanner to achieve a dewy glow. This is a much safer alternative, but I am disappointed that all forms of tanning have not been banned from the show.

The ingredients in many sunless tanners, like parabens and phthalates, may also prove to be toxic. Some experts believe they can increase the risk of not only skin cancer, but also other forms of cancer; they argue that with extended use, sunless tanners can work their way into your bloodstream and reach other organs.

Your safest bet is to learn to accept the skin you are in, no matter what shade it may be.

Jenna Belmonte is a magazine, newspaper and online journalism graduate student. Her fashion column appears every Monday in Pulp. She can be reached at jmbelmon@syr.edu.

Published on October 14, 2013 at 12:10 am