Stories like this make us sick -- not as sick as the models, though. Coco Rocha attended the CFDA conference on "The Beauty of Health," which was held to address problems with eating disorders in the fashion industry. While there she spoke out about the pressure to lose weight and how it drove her to take diuretics, amongst other unhealthy things she did to her body.

Several models have spoken out against the deadly industry standard of using girls for runway shows that are dangerously thin -- among them are ladies like Ali Michael and Natalia Vodianova. But, after they spoke out, critics accused them of saying something only because their careers were on the brink of extinction. This is not so in Coco Rocha's case.

People laugh at Patrick Dempsey in his spandex biker shorts. Shock. [Page Six]

Check out Gwyneth Paltrow as a porcelain doll on the May issue of Vogue. [ShinyStyle]

Etiquette Checker -- never have bad breath on a date again! [productdose]

Gasp! The fashion industry uses sweatshops! New documentary will make people freak out, wish they were doing something about the problem, then forget about it on their way to buy cute designer knock-offs at Target. [Catwalk Queen]

The only way to wear white tennis shoes. [Hypebeast]

Dudes: read this before picking out your spring jacket. [Refinery29]

Don't gain weight ladies, you'll never fit into this chair, perfectly molded to some model's butt. [Gizmodo]

France might outlaw "inciting thinness." [AP]

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.

For a long time now there has been a problem in the fashion industry with clothes that are too tiny, being worn by models that are too thin, walking down runways that are probably too small. This, in turn, has affected the average celebrity who now also feels the need to wear a size zero in order to fit into designer sample clothing. And that has now changed the way we regular women feel about ourselves as well. The pressure from society and the media to be smaller and smaller is more intense than ever!

But, one thing has remained constant in during the thin is in era. Normal men have professed their love for normal size women. Polls are always coming out claiming that men prefer real women with curves, or that guys like a girl with a little meat on her bones.

Not so, says Amanda Fortini, in this month's Elle Magazine. At 5'6" she actually got down to about 100 pounds, and says that men were actually much more into her at that weight. I was actually shocked to hear what she had to say about her experience as a super thin waif of a woman. Amanda wrote, "Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly...As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously, 'A little anorexia is hot.'"

Turns out that Amanda actually had a tropical parasite in her intestines, digesting her food for her. Hmm, are parasites the new binge and purge?

Anyways, men, I'd love to hear what you think. Is it true that someone who looks a little anorexic is hot? Be honest!

Via Big Fat Deal.

Female models aren't the only ones feeling the pressure to be skinny. The Independent reports that male models are also required to be dangerously slim. Gone are the rather buff models that used to dominate the catwalk for men's fashion. The look now is rail-thin and that leaves male models facing the same starvation regimes that many female models have adopted.

One model, Ron Saxen has written a book called "The Good Eater" about his battle with an eating disorder. He describes the classic model diet of too much coffee, too much exercise and too little to eat. The article gives the stats for some of the models Chris Ulyatt, shown in Dior in the pic at right, is 6 foot 2 and has a 29-inch waist.

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Manorexia is on the rise

We've mentioned before the crackdown on overly skinny models in Italy in the wake of the increasing controversy and the recent anorexia-related death of Ana Carolina Weston. Now Italy's fashion body has indicated that they plan to introduce a license for models who want to walk the runway. To earn the license the models will have to be assessed by the Camera della Moda Nazionale as well as a committee of doctors and other experts. The goal is to protect the models as well as those who aspire to be like them. The magic Body Mass Index level is 18.5 and over and the models have to be at least 16 to earn a license. The rules aren't ironclad, allowances will be made for certain geographical and ethnic factors (to protect the naturally skinny) hence the reason for an individual license rather than a blanket dictum.

You may love her or love to hate her, but the fact remains that Lindsay Lohan has become a style icon in today's celebrity-obsessed culture.

Ms. Lohan has been spotted all over Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris, attending fashion shows, sporting the latest (and sometimes disastrous) styles, and generally causing a ruckus wherever she goes. Recently Lindsay gave an extremely revealing interview to the News of the World, discussing her celebrity status, love life, and the overwhelming pressure from Hollywood to remain stick-thin.

With notorious stylist Rachel Zoe in Lohan's employ, it is not surprising that the starlet has shrunk to waif-like proportions. However, Lindsay seems to be fed up with never being allowed to feed.

"Sometimes being that thin doesn't look healthy. I kind of didn't realize that," said Lohan in her recent interview. "I feel great about my body now, though. When I was in the hospital I was overworked and stressed out and that's when they started talking about my weight. Now I am comfortable in my own skin and I like having a shape and having breasts the size they are."

I for one think that it would be wonderful to have a young, stylish starlet who wears fun clothing for the public to emulate, and is curvy rather than emaciated. Let's hope that Lohan uses her celebrity status and newfound attitude about her body to offer a more balanced perspective on fashion and the risks of becoming weight-obsessed.

1990s supermodel Claudia Schiffer has spoken out about today's bone-thin models. "It doesn't really look good any more," Schiffer, 36, said in Germany's Bunte magazine according to Reuters. She acknowledged that fashion looks good on thin models but that today's models are just too bony to be attractive. Starting out, the German model was one of the curvier models but she has lost weight after having her two children and now eats chocolate and drinks whole milk to retain her figure.

Claudia's comments come after months of controversy regarding the super-thin models on catwalks worldwide. The models were banned in Milan and Madrid and there has been a lot of discussion regarding how thin is too thin for models. Recently when I was at fashion week I was waiting in line with a woman whose daughter was walking in one of the shows. She mentioned that her daughter had recently been in Paris and had been told by one of the designers that she needed to lose a half-inch of her hips. Her mother told me that her daughter didn't quite see how that would be possible given that she is 5'11" and weighs 115 lbs. While according to her mother, this girl just has lucky genetics, it seems to me that taking the naturally thin and making them even thinner is a sign that models really are too emaciated lately. I applaud Claudia's comments on bringing a little more meat back to the runway.