[fashion] the size issue

The very first thing we all think about when we think about models is probably that they're thin. THIN. But lately, there's been all the buzz about size--you know, V Magazine's "Size" issue, and most recently, two articles that have something to do with one of my favorite models, Coco Rocha. So this morning at 3 a.m., while I should've been doing homework or sleeping, I was instead prowling The New York Times Fashion & Style section as usual as well as Coco Rocha's blog, Oh So Coco. I found that one of my favorite fashion journalists, Guy Trebay, wrote an article in regards to Ms. Rocha (and other people's reactions) dealing with the size standards of the fashion industry. Then, when I got home and checked my Twitter feed, I discovered that the NY Daily News also happened (well, I doubt it's coincidence!) to deal with the size issue, stating that because Ms. Rocha is a size 4, the fashion industry's demands for her have waned.

Oh, good grief. Just what is considered acceptable nowadays in the fashion industry? Well, according to the NY Daily News, it's a size zero. I don't really know if that's veritable, but if so, I don't know what to say. So a size four is fat? (I think to myself: I must be overweight in that case! But then again, I'm not a model.)

I don't have much to say about how the fashion industry is calling for size zeroes, or people less than a size four, but my intentions of writing this is to analyze, err, question how/why the fashion industry's size standards are progressing towards even thinner and thinner models. Why is it? What happened to the = curvaceous models of earlier eras? I'm not saying that the models nowadays that are really thin or size zeroes don't look good, but where did the more voluptuous, wholesome models go? Why aren't they in the business anymore? Or, the ultimate question, once again--why is the fashion industry generally seeming to demand thinner and thinner models, excluding the models that do not meet the size standard anymore? Also, as Ms. Rocha mentioned to Guy Trebay in A Models' Prospect: Slim and None, we can observe that the industry is calling upon girls rather than women: "And the latest crop of models is not made up of “adults or even sort-of adults,” she insisted. “They are children. Point closed.”

What has caused this change in the type of model that the fashion industry seeks, and when exactly did this pattern begin?

EDIT: Ms. Rocha says that the demands for her have not waned, so, never mind what NY Daily News said.