Skinny Model Era Vanishing

About 30% of the models who worked in the previous Madrid fashion show were sent off the catwalk amid the fashion organizer's uprising, the BMI the standard for determining 'who goes and who stays'. BMI is an abbreviation for Body Mass Index and gauges the total body fat of an individual based on weight and height. It is one of the more accurate methods for determining health risks. To determine your BMI, click here.

While model agencies are getting a little catty regarding the ban, it appears that perhaps model agencies aren't in touch with reality. With weight gain and obesity on the rise in the real world, too-thin models may materialize as an oddity side-show to many onlookers. In fact, more than ever too-thin celebrities are starving for attention on pages of popular spin-magazines these days.

"Is Celebrity-x becoming too thin?" the caption reads, while Celebrity-x's ribs are exploding all over the page. Perhaps there is an end in sight to this 'Emperor's Clothes' way of thinking, for many are addressing the issue of anorexia and bulimia rather than standing in the wings locked in silent shock.

So does this mean that we feel that all models are too thin? That all models have succumbed to anorexia and bulimia? Of course not - but many a model has feasted on cotton balls soaked in gelatin to retain that too-svelte image. And yes, while some individuals are born naturally thin, there aren't that many gazelles jumping through the fabric of Mother Nature.

With obesity flourishing in the real world, a good deal of fashion cents has been lost due to fashion sense - so the designers are definitely moving in the right direction. And it's about time. In fact, more opportunity for fashion cents exists in a consumer base built on individuals who don't fit into the rail-thin category than those who do.

Watching painfully-thin ladies parade up and down the catwalk isn't anything to applaud and in turn influences our younger generation to mimic those rail-thin eating behaviors. While obesity takes its toll on health, anorexia and bulimia also present extreme health risks, often times ending in death.

How thin is too thin? When the skeletal frame is visible to the naked eye, one is too thin. One should seek carved abs, not starved abs.

Creating more figure-flattering designs for those battling the bulge would also be a step in the right direction which would make the dieting individual's transposition from 'overweight to recommended weight' a more pleasant experience.

This article is dedicated to all who strive to be a healthy model.