Washington, October 1 : Actress Dame Helen Mirren has criticized the fashion industry’s obsession with size zero.

She has also slammed female fashion editors for encouraging models to grow their bodies “horrifically thin”.

The 62-year-old Oscar winner has revealed that she came across size discrimination that is prevalent in the fashion industry when she took her niece, an aspiring model, to several booking agencies.

She says that every authority she met told her that her niece was overweight.

Mirren strongly feels that senior fashion writers and editors are to blame for the trend of size zero in the fashion industry.

"I blame my own sex vehemently on this. It is women who run the magazine and women who editorialise and women who make the decisions,” Contactmusic quoted her as saying.

"I think it is completely iniquitous to have incredibly skinny girls on the runway. A lot of the girls are horrifically thin and of course they have a problem. Mostly, the fashion industry chooses to turn a blind eye," she added. (With inputs from ANI)