AN ANOREXIC MODEL who created huge controversy during Milan Fashion Week in 2007 by posing nude as part of an awareness campaign for the disease has died at 28 years of age.

Billboards featuring emaciated Isabelle Caro were plastered across the fashion capital bearing the slogan “No anorexia” as a challenge to an industry that has been accused of perpetuating unhealthy representations of women.

When she was photographed for the campaign by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, Caro weighed just 59 lbs – or just over 4 stone.

The French model had battled with the disease since she was 13 and had slipped into a coma in 2006, when her weight plunged to 55 lbs. It was after this experience that Caro felt determined to expose the truth about anorexia and agreed to take part in the controversial campaign.

When asked in an interview with CBS in 2007 if she regretted taking part – or worried about other girls suffering from anorexia being encouraged to lose more weight by looking at her picture – she said:

I show myself as I am. I’m not beautiful; my hair is ruined, I’ve lost several teeth, my skin is dry, my breasts have fallen – no young girl wants to look like a skeleton. It’s horrible. It’s ugliness. You couldn’t believe that anyone would want to look like that, I don’t think there is any question about it.

Caro passed away on 17 November from a respiratory illness. Her family informed the media of her death on Wednesday.