There was an uproar in the fashion world in fall 2006 when Madrid and Milan fashion weeks turned away models without a healthy BMI. Since then, a debate has erupted over why America hasn't taken a cue from its European counterparts and imposed a minimum weight restriction on models appearing in fashion shows. Recently, a new voice has joined the party and he has some personal insight into the problem.

Former Halston designer Bradley Bayou had witnessed the industry's sample sizes shrinking, and he went along with it. His oldest daughter constantly tried to lose enough weight so that she could fit into his designs and look as pretty as the models he dressed.

Bayou was unaware that his daughter suffered from an eating disorder (and that he'd been contributing to it) until she entered therapy after a breakdown that had landed her in the emergency room. It was then that he realized the impact that the skeletal fashion models have on women across the world. This was three years ago, and Bayou isn't about to stop spreading his message: Fashion Can Kill.

In addition to this account, a top Uruguayan fashion model dropped dead minutes after walking the catwalk from heart failure caused by her attempts to become a size zero (as encouraged by her agency). The question that reports like this bring into play is whether imposing a minimum weight regulation for models would fix the problem, and while Bayou is all for the regulation, some surprising voices are speaking up against it.

Designer Diane von Furstenberg, who is active in women's empowerment, doesn't agree with regulating the BMI of models. Don't get me wrong -- she wants models to be of a healthy weight, but she also states that "to calculate the girls' body mass ... is demeaning ... surely you are making them feel more like meat than ever -- even if it's little meat, if you know what I mean."

So what do you think? Should the fashion industry have specific regulations to meet, or should they simply use common sense and use models who are of a healthy weight? Should the responsibility fall back on the designers? After all, if they don't use sample sizes of zero and two, models won't have to fit into them. Or do you think the anoerexic look is just a trend and that we'll start seeing curvier women on the catwalks soon enough?