The Resurgence of Thinness Culture in Fashion

By Alicia McCormack

Trends always come in a cycle, and recent times have seen a resurgence in a concerning trend that reached its peak in the 90s and early 2000s. “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” – which British supermodel Kate Moss gave as one of her mantras in a 2009 interview, was the rule for a generation of women combatted daily with the ‘heroin chic’ aesthetic [1]. This attitude towards food and body image had detrimental effects on the mental health of girls growing up with different body types. Eventually, their courage in telling their stories and exposés on the horrific conditions the models themselves endured cracked holes in the glittering ideal of ‘skinny’. Societal stigma around weight and the prized value of ‘thinness’ did not disappear, but a level of acceptance emerged that had not existed before. A body positivity movement, not without its own issues in messaging, surged in popularity with celebrities as the face. They became new role models for girls of all shapes and sizes. Fashion brands made tentative efforts with the inclusion of plus size models and representation increased on screen and in the pages of magazines.

It shouldn’t have to take years of advocacy for the press and brands that dominate everyday life to accept that people are born with different bodies, and that physical and mental health are the top priority rather than being a size zero. But these changes were a hopeful sign of progress. But this progress seems to have halted. Thinness culture, repackaged as something different and unassuming, is making an alarming return. It’s not always explicitly said, but the message is clear online and offline: you should look like this. Gym and diet culture began as a way to promote wellness and is largely positive for many people. But videos about ‘gym bodies’, ‘Pilates bodies’, ‘what I eat in a day’, ‘how to get abs’, along with a million other micro-trends are inescapable on social media and naturally slide into users’ subconscious. The aspirational body type is not the exact same as the one propagated in the 90s but it’s another ideal to strive for. It’s become the new norm to grind at the gym for this, with gym memberships at an all-time high. Diets are back in fashion too, creeping off TikTok into the real world, with calorie counts appearing on menus and new bars of success set by people with already healthy weights [2].

Brands have sensed this change and adapted. Plus size options in shops have started disappearing, enforcing the idea that it’s unacceptable to be this size. Brands like Pretty Little Thing, which was once known for its diverse range of models, has quietly rebranded its site to be represented almost entirely by thin models. The Vogue Business size inclusivity report in 2023 found that across the Autumn/Winter fashion season, 0.9% of the looks were plus size (UK 18+) and only 3.9% were mid-size (10-14). By the summer season, plus size looks had dropped to 0.3%. Of 8,703 looks modelled at 198 shows, only twenty-four pieces would fit a plus size person [3]. At Milan Fashion Week, ten out of 2,960 models were ‘plus size’. Shops like Urban Outfitters and Pull & Bear don’t even pretend to cater for different body types with sizing discrepancies that leave customers who fit even a medium in other stores scrounging at the back of rails to find items that will fit them.

The most disturbing element of this cultural trend is the lack of empathy and overt distaste expressed for people who don’t match the ideal. I was shocked to see a recent TikTok addressing complaints made about the exclusivity of brand’s sizing. In an aggressive tone, the user told everyone to stop expecting brands to change for them and instead change themselves for the brand. “You’re fat”, she said, “that’s your fault. Do something about it”. There is a total lack of understanding about how body weight changes and if it actually indicates health. This is startingly obvious on social media. Videos of girls opening up about their experience with eating disorders are flooded with comments of people congratulating them for losing weight. ‘Thinness’ is pushed as the end goal regardless of method or ramification.

If you can’t achieve it, you are worthy of ridicule. The ‘chubby filter’ trend on TikTok blatantly expressed the fatphobia of our culture with users putting a filter over their pictures to see what they would look like ‘chubby’ and showed reactions laughing and screaming in horror at what looks similar to some people’s actual bodies. The search term is now restricted due to the outcry but the tone-deafness of such a filter even existing is concerning.

So many different factors amalgamating together has resulted in an atmosphere of hostility and extreme pressure for people who are not thin. The overall message is that there is a specific way you should look and if you don’t, you need to use the gym, a diet or even ‘miracle drugs’ such as Ozempic to attain this standard, regardless of the fact that bodies work in different ways and some people are unable to achieve this ‘perfect body’. The real-world effects of this online rhetoric are only beginning to be seen and have the potential to be deeply damaging.

Sources:

[1] BBC News. (2018). Kate Moss regrets ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels’ comment. [Online]. BBC News. Last Updated: 14 September 2018. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45522714 [Accessed 11 April 2025].

[2] The HIIT Company. (2024). The Rise Of “Toxic Gym Culture”. [Online]. The HIIT Company. Last Updated: 1 May 2024. Available at: https://vibe.thehiitcompany.com/the-rise-of-toxic-gym-culture/ [Accessed 11 April 2025].

[3] Tempera, Jacqueline. (2025). Why Are Plus-Size Clothing Options Disappearing?. [Online]. The Every Girl. Last Updated: 1 April 2025. Available at: https://theeverygirl.com/plus-size-clothing-option-disappearance/ [Accessed 11 April 2025].