I think the gaunt look is supposed to represent struggle & inner conflict which has always been associated with the music industry. Music & fashion have been co-dependent for ages, tho music seems to be the leader & fashion the follower, Eg, the beatles, led zepp, boy george, Nirvana, perhaps not in high fashion tho, those freaks just do whatever the hell they want. Just look at that black judge dude from America's next top model...I rest my case. In the last 10 years or so, I think music has not had a real leader in terms of making fashion statements. The proliferation EMO-ism & the latest fascination with Vampire culture have given real impetus making gaunt "in". I think it will be a while before "beefy" edges out "gaunt". Beefy people don't appear to struggle with much apart from their appearance naked in the mirror. Gaunt people look like they struggle with everything. Inner struggle & conflict appeals to the fashion culture right now - well that's my opinion anyway. Rangi.

The skinny "men" look very much like the skinny women on the catwalk. Androgenous robots, designed to please fashion designers who desire the androgenous shape and ambiguous sexuality. Need I say more?

The reason for unreasonable thinness of models of both genders lies in the sexual preferences of leading clothing designers. With majority being gay, it is a little wonder male and female models have no identifiable gender traits. Girls look like emaciated boys, boys look like emaciated girls. It matters not who the clothing is created for, as none of us, the regular plebs with regular bodies will wear the outrageous or impractical offerings, what does matter is that it looks just as designer intended, hobbling down the runway on the shoulders of a skeletal apparition of indeterminate gender or age.

Re#2 People do buy things from the catwalk you know, the marketing is not just aimed soley at women but yes 'slightly' as a lot of women (so they say) have more to do with their mans atire than the man himself (unfortunately for those men) but they do market mens clothes to appeal to men mainly!! there are a lot of men out there that go by the book or the 'catwalk' when making their decisions on what to buy and the marketing works...though to come back to the point of this article I am glad to hear that the gaunt "pete wentz" type male is out and the real man back in!! I don't think it will ever be the same for women however cause let's face it we don't want to see "larger" girls on the catwalks do we.

re #1. I think the marketing is aimed at women. Obviously not to sell the clothes but to sell the brand as a cool, fashionable clothing label. Nobody buys anything from a catwalk - let's be honest. But the designers create their brand from the show - be it shocking, querky, conservative etc.

I have never understood why fashion houses use feminine teenage looking boys (eg. Kelvin Klein)to advertise their men's line. It's no wonder adult men don't want to buy the stuff. They are too afraid to end up looking like a girly looking teenager. Furthermore, most teenagers can't afford top labels anyway so why market to them. Why not use "REAL ADULT" men - someone that might actually have to shave in the morning and not boys that look like they haven't even finished puberty yet.