Models pose as mannequins in a department store window in Milan on Sunday. Alessando Garofalo / Reuters

Store says live modeling offers employment for young people

MILAN, Italy - Models appearing in shorts and bikinis in the window of a department store in central Milan caused a stir over the weekend, with a trade union denouncing the commercialization of the human body.

The male and female models first appeared last week in the windows of the Coin department store to promote its summer sale, prompting Italy's Filcams CGIL trade union to criticize work deemed degrading.

"Let's be clear, we're not against the sale, or a free-market economy, or against consumers. But we want to defend the decency of workers and the intelligence of customers," the union said.

The models briefly disappeared from the windows, but were back on view on Saturday, this time holding signs saying "Modeling is also a job".

"Coin did not withdraw the models from the window, we haven't seen any reason to do so. The promotion will continue on Saturday and Sunday," the department store said in a statement.

On Monday, the models were gone, but Coin's Chief Executive Stefano Beraldo, speaking at the group's general assembly in Mestre near Venice, congratulated himself on the free publicity the union offered his group and said it had provided an employment opportunity for young people.

"We have given these kids a job and we paid their costs. They prefer to work rather than staying idle on the streets. So what? And what about the pin-ups reading the news? Or Big Brother?"