Fashion essentials: healthier models, more

Fashion is an industry built on planned obsolescence, which means that much of what was breathlessly touted in 2006 will be forgotten in 2007. There will be no need to fret about leggings, wide belts, sweater coats and the various expensive handbags -- the Chloe Edith, Chanel's Coco Cabas -- that once seemed so essential. The industry will be on to something else.

But a handful of fashion stories unfolded last year that will continue to influence the industry -- and culture:

* Madrid's decision to ban models from the runway with a body mass index below 18 has sparked conversations about the glorification of unhealthily thin physiques in the most prominent fashion markets: New York, Paris, London and Milan, Italy. So far, of these four cities, only Milan has taken steps to monitor the size of the women who walk the runway, but discussions are ongoing in others.

It's unlikely that designers will start sending Size 8 models down the catwalk. But the fretfulness over reed-thin models is part of a larger, reinvigorated debate over the effect the fashion industry has on how women are perceived by others and themselves.

The Dove marketing campaign, in which amateur models of various body types posed in their skivvies, is part of that same conversation. The advertisements, which started turning heads in 2005, had many women cheering, but the feel-good photos and videos had little to do with the fashion industry and the way it uses fantasy to sell the most mundane products.

The fatter the general population becomes, the thinner the models -- and their starlet stand-ins -- get. That strange correlation raises questions about the relationship between fashion and the culture at large -- a bond that has been simultaneously antagonistic, condescending and reassuring. The fashion industry feeds on a cult of self-criticism and insecurity not because it needs to but because it can.

Somewhere between the amateur models and the hollow-eyed professional ones, fashion may find its sweet spot: a healthy-looking mannequin who can also sell impossible fantasies. Fashion should be about dreams and aspirations. It should not spark resentment.

* New York has a new generation of designers. Names such as Doo-Ri Chung, Derek Lam, Thakoon Panichgul and Richard Chai are just a few of the talented designers who prove that creativity on Seventh Avenue runs deep. Their ability to balance the intricacies of the business side with the relentless creative demands will be the ongoing story.