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.

"Tiny" designer sample dresses cause women to starve themselves: Jameela Jamil