>> Last night, the CFDA gathered an audience at Milk Studios in Manhattan for a Health Initiative discussion on “The Beauty of Health: Resizing the Sample Size.”  James Scully, the casting director who worked on the likes of Jason Wu's and Stella McCartney's shows last season and Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent's during Tom Ford's reign, laid it out:

Of the 172 girls I saw for casting for fashion week, 75 of those were 16 or under. Everybody is demanding the girls fit into a 33-inch hip. A teenage boy has a 32-inch hip . . . they start too young and suddenly when they’re 17 turning 18 and they grow breasts and hips, they’ll do anything to fit into the size.

Doutzen Kroes, who started in the industry at 18 and was pressured to lose weight, offered her perspective: “I never fit the sample. I probably fit it once, when I was 11." Her solution? “We had what we called an ‘ass meeting’ with my agent. I chose to have a healthy lifestyle and work around that.”

So how will the standard be changed? »

>> Snowstorm May Keep Some of the Industry Away from Beginning of New York Fashion Week —If your favorite model is missing on the first day of Fashion Week shows, snow may be to blame. New York experienced a snowstorm last night and well into this morning, and because of it, the Fashion Week crowds may be thinned out for the first day or so. Marilyn Agency reports: "No models will be flying in today to NY! 'No flights coming in, none going out' Thankfully most of ours are already here..."  Elle's Joe Zee is in Los Angeles and was on the phone with American Airlines this morning about his flight back to New York today.  But Sasha Pivovarova fans, rejoice: she caught the only flight to New York from London Heathrow that wasn't canceled today. [@MarilynAgencyNY, @mrjoezee, @evachen212, @evachen212]

>> The Sundance Channel is on a mission to amp up their fashion coverage. They just launched Catwalk Countdown, a series of ten one-minute online videos highlighting designers like Erin Fetherston, Vena Cava, Lyn Devon, Chris Benz — Benz talks how he produces 98 percent of his collection within a two-block radius of his Manhattan studio, for instance — and now they're bringing back popular fashion documentarist Loic Prigent for a second season of his The Day Before series.

Prigent, who captured the likes of Sonia Rykiel, Proenza Schouler, Fendi, and Jean Paul Gaultier for the show's first season, is currently in New York, where he will film Alexander Wang, Diane von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriguez, and Jeremy Scott each in the 36 hours leading up to their shows.  Prigent has been granted "full access," he told The Cut, "[because] we are discreet . . . [so designers] forget we are even there."

Who do they hope to film in London and Paris? »

>> Yves Saint Laurent Has Another Manifesto in the Bag —In what is quickly becoming Fashion Week tradition, Yves Saint Laurent has a new edition of its Manifesto, this time housed in a strawberry-printed tote — the fruit motif appeared all over Stefano Pilati's Spring 2010 collection for the label. On February 16, over half a million copies of the Manifesto (which includes images of brand face Natalia Vodianova captured by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin) will be distributed in Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong and, for the first time, Berlin — with the first 2,000 passersby receiving the tote as well.

Lady Gaga and Cyndi Lauper become spokeswomen for the MAC AIDS fund, celebrate at Lucky Chang's in Manhattan.

Marc Jacobs filed a copyright infringement complaint against Ed Hardy's quilted tote with stitched block print, which bears resemblance to a Marc by Marc Jacobs bag—save for the Ed Hardy tattoo-print fish splashed on the side.

Tom Ford on what separates his fashion imagery from his directorial debut: "My fashion career has been very much about full frontal male and female nudity and sex. For me, A Single Man is about love and romance, and had there been a need for that kind of nudity, then sure - but there wasn't."

Oscar de la Renta might be working on a beauty deal to expand his brand into skin care and color cosmetics.

Leslie Mann appears in Scott Sternberg's spring 2010 look book as "cougar with two younger dudes."

Optimism continues to grow with luxury retail executives, as the focus turns towards luring back aspirational shoppers.