This year, Los Angeles became the birthplace of one of the worst trends ever: size 00. Though it's equivalent to a UK size 2 (23in waistline and dimensions similar to a seven-year-old's), you'd be surprised how many celebrities have attained this size. Victoria Beckham and Amy Winehouse come close, but it's LA girls such as Nicole Richie, Kate Bosworth and Lindsay Lohan whose emaciated frames have become synonymous with 00. They're also linked to one celebrity stylist: Rachel Zoe, who is as petite and chic as her clients. Her signature look of outsized accessories, kaftans and skinny jeans is worn by all her 'girls', and it's so influential Zoe now collaborates with fashion designers, too. This says a lot about our obsession with celebrity, but also about our obsession with size. Because under Zoe's aegis, all her clients have grown skinny (though accusations that she encourages weight loss have been denied). With Zoe influencing designers as well as celebrities, the super-skinny look becomes omnipotent.
Until, surprisingly, the fashion industry finally makes a stand, after two models die from eating disorders this year. On 2 August, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos suffers a fatal heart attack minutes after leaving the catwalk. In November, Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston dies of kidney failure. After Ramos's death, the first skinny-model catwalk ban is introduced to Madrid Fashion Week in September. Girls with a BMI below 18 are barred (the World Health Organisation's definition of underweight). A similar measure is mooted for Milan Fashion Week - which would affect the shows of the world's biggest designers.
Given that celebrities now enjoy an equal if not superior cultural sway to models, it's hard to know if the catwalk ban would dent the size 00 trend. But this month, Nicole Richie sacked Zoe as her stylist and posted some delightfully bitchy comments on MySpace apparently referring to Zoe and diets. The rift has led to an online deluge of negative comments about Zoe and skinny chic, and sent shock waves through the fashion industry. While action by a minor fashion week and a minor celebrity may seem paltry, any step that sends the message that super-skinny is sick not chic in our weight-obsessed society is a step in the right direction.
Five other fashion furores
July: Jean Paul Gaultier, Louis Vuitton and Prada feature fur on their runways
5 October: Jane Shepherdson of Topshop leaves amid rumoured anger over Kate Moss desiging a new line
November: It is disclosed that next year stores will carry Helmut Lang clothes not designed by Helmut Lang
8 December: Bangladeshi employees are revealed to be making clothes for Asda, Primark and Tesco at 5p an hour
11 December: Karl Lagerfield starts legal action over Alicia Drake's book on the Seventies Paris fashion show