Isaac Mizrahi on how 'sickly' thin models are a thing of the past Designer Isaac Mizrahi has opened up about body diversity on the runway, insisting that overly thin models no longer exist Designer Isaac Mizrahi has opened up about body diversity on the runway, insisting that overly thin models no longer exist. The American fashion designer, who presented his first collection in 1987 at a trunk show held by Bergdorf Goodman, has witnessed the fashion industry's evolution first hand. 'I don't notice girls anymore in the majority who are sickly-looking,' the 52-year-old told Huffington Post Style. 'Even if they're tall and thin now, they look healthier to me. Not fat, not fatter, but they just look healthier. The former Project Runway: All Stars judge recalled the emaciated look of the Nineties in particular. There was a moment when there was this whole heroin chic thing and it just looked terrible. It just looked terrible! And now everyone points at it and goes, "Oh dear, that's terrible."' Mr Mizrahi admits, however, that models are still 'encouraged to be thin.' 'But I don't think they're encouraged to look like drug addicts anymore,' he added. 'I mean, I'm sure there are some designers who like the girls to look like drug addicts, but not on the whole the way it was for a good ten years -- like, in the middle of the "90s to around 2002 or so. There was that thing going on, and it was sickening, absolutely sickening. I don't think it exists anymore.' Over the past five years, discourse surrounding body image in the fashion industry has gained particular momentum. In 2007 the CFDA set its own guidelines to address 'the overwhelming concern about whether some models are unhealthily thin.' The American fashion designer and former Project Runway: All Stars judge, said: 'I don't notice girls anymore in the majority who are sickly-looking' (pictured: isaac Mizrahi spring/summer 2014 collection) And in May last year, Vogue unveiled a new health initiative promising to not 'knowingly' work with models who have eating disorders and to 'encourage designers to consider the consequences' of exceptionally small sample sizes. Vogue Italia's Franca Sozzani also admitted that the fashion industry promotes anorexia in a speech at Harvard University last year, while 23-year-old former model Georgina Wilkin recently wrote that the pressure to stay thin while modeling in the mid-2000s gave her a serious eating disorder. Most recently, model Bria Murphy confessed this summer: 'I've heard of people eating the cotton balls with the orange juice [to keep from eating].'