While Pete Doherty may very well be “completely broke” (according to claims about his squalid living conditions of late), he can rest easier upon learning that his name, along with that of Russell Brand, has been mentioned as inspiration for the rising “manorexia” fashion trend as reflected by a British mannequin manufacturer:

Next month Rootstein will debut a mannequin with a 35in chest and a 27in waist – 12in smaller than the average British man. The firm said it was just reflecting demand and a shift to gender-blending fashion led by the slim and cool: Mark Ronson, Russell Brand, designer Hedi Slimane, and a new crop of male models, like Calvin Klein’s Tomek Szmulewicz and Top Man’s Sam Bennett. It talked of allowing “the boys a little of what the girls were getting with a beautifully angular physique that’s all about the youthful thrill of life on the edge.”

The mannequin’s designer, Kevin Arpino, said demand was up for smaller models. “It is a collection dictated by current fashion trends for skinny jeans and very tight tailoring, as seen everywhere from Topman to Gucci and in the edgier fashion magazines like Numéro. It’s a trend which you can see in celebrities and rock stars – Russell Brand has a little bit to do with it. But I am sure that muscle boys will have their time again.”

But for Rob Richman, 35, a recovering anorexic from London, it’s a deeply worrying shift. “I’m staggered, shocked, at what the fashion industry is doing now, trying to mould men to aspire to a different shape than one that is natural, the same as they did with women. Between the tiny sizes and the six-pack look, the pressure on men just seems to have escalated,” he said.

“In my early 30s I couldn’t get clothes to fit me and I would have to buy girls’ jeans; now I can get tiny sizes on the High Street. You’re telling teenage boys to reach unrealistic and unhealthy sizes. Of course you get guys like Pete Doherty and Stephen Merchant who are naturally tall and thin, but this is about pressure to conform to a false ideal. We should allow men and women to be the different shapes and sizes they naturally are.”

Okay, there’s a lot wrong with the above sentiments, but I don’t really see the point of rehashing what I’ve already said many times before. As to the new “poster boys” of manorexia, it’s pretty damn obvious that Doherty’s drug addiction is the culprit for his weight fluctuations and tendency to look like death itself. Russell Brand doesn’t exactly seem like the type to intentionally starve himself either, particularly because a key symptom of male anorexia is the loss of erections, which definitely isn’t the case where Brand is concerned. Just ask Katy Perry.