Sciola has shed up to 18kg over three years, dropping weight training and starting to jog. He eventually downsized to an 81cm waist and 99cm chest. For him to make the cut for high-end fashion labels such as Armani in Europe, it was like a heavyweight professional boxer stripping down three divisions. But, in modelling, slight men punch well above their weight.
"I have never really been told I've been too big, but you work it out for yourself if you are going to castings and you are not fitting the clothes," says Sciola, now back to his Australian weight of 82kg. "I don't even go to Prada castings because I know I'm not going to get the work."
While critical eyes have been fixed on skeletal female models - with jutting ribs and collar bones, pencil-thin pegs and wan complexions - their male counterparts have been quietly wasting away.
As recently as 2000, it was fashionable for guys to come packaged with sizeable pecs, biceps and a six-pack. Now, they are shrinking before our eyes.
Fashion houses such as Dior and Prada have long promoted urchins and wraiths, and even the models for a recent Dolce & Gabbana show, for which buff boys are usually in vogue, seemed shrunken.
The new look can be called willowy or wasted, depending on your take. And it is spreading here, where labels such as Zambesi and Claude Maus, and fashion editorial magazines such as Russh and Yen have a preference for raw-boned men.
