No matter which social media platform you go on today, whether it is Instagram or TikTok, I am sure you will find several posts about inclusivity and diversity. This important topic has also taken over the fashion industry. In the past, it was unimaginable that some day a plus size model like Ashley Graham could be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a magazine that for so many years promoted unrealistic beauty standards with their highly photoshopped images of women. But things have changed! With the body positivity movement rising in popularity, fashion brands have started to feature models that don’t wear a size zero. From the outside it looks like the fashion industry is finally taking a step in the right direction after making society believe for too long that beauty is equal to being thin and having perfect hair and skin.
But how body diverse is the fashion world, really?
I have worked as a high fashion model for four years and got to travel to Shanghai, Singapore and New York. I walked the runways for fashion week and shot numerous campaigns and look books for a variety of designers and brands. So, believe me when I say that body positivity is more of an illusion –to help please customers and drive up profits– than reality.
The fashion industry is still obsessed with the “perfect” body, and it might be slightly “bigger” than in the past and there might be one or two plus size models in a fashion show, but the industry is still far away from representing all sizes and being body inclusive. What about other body types that are in between super skinny and what the industry labels as “curvy” and female models under 5’9”? Male models are exposed to similar pressures around having the “ideal” body and must attain equally strict and unrealistic body requirements. I cannot even name a single male plus size model and I am sure many of you can’t either. That’s sad but it’s the reality we are living in!
The fashion industry is dictated by trends - so I can’t help but wonder if body diversity is also only a trend… What is perceived as being the “ideal” body type has changed throughout history.
In the 50s and early 60s the hourglass figure was the “perfect” body shape. Between the late 60s and 90s being thin became trendy and the bodies of models like Twiggy (shown wearing a bikini below) were idolized by women worldwide. Then came the Supermodel era, Models became thinner and thinner until the body positivity movement emerged in 2012. This shows that beauty standards are always changing. Trends come and go, so is body positivity here to stay or are designers and marketers simply jumping on the bandwagon to not be cancelled by consumers and to stay in business?!
The evolution of body shape standards throughout the years:
We will never know if body positivity will still be here in 5 years from now but the fact that a brand like Victoria’s Secret, for whose shows models starved themselves and over-exercised for months, has gone bankrupt. It seems like consumers are pushing the fashion industry in the right direction and we should continue to demand more diversity and inclusion to drive this change forward. We must show brands that featuring one plus size model and a few models from different cultural backgrounds is not enough anymore!
We have established that the fashion industry is still far away from being body positive and that it’s time that it actually becomes body inclusive and not just pretend to be those things. So what can the fashion industry do to change?
Body positivity and inclusivity to me means not judging people based on their body shape and including everyone, regardless of their look, weight or height. Stop calling models too skinny or too curvy - simply stop judging people's body size and pressuring models to attain unrealistic body standards. Someone skinny is not directly malnourished and someone wearing plus size is not any less healthy. The industry has to stop creating and promoting the “perfect” body and start representing all bodies - from skinny to curvy, small to big and everything in between!
Ultimately, change has to be driven by consumers, designers, fashion brands and model agencies alike. I have been blessed with good genes and a fast metabolism and luckily I never had to worry about being not thin enough to model. But I have experienced first hand how harsh the modelling and fashion industry can be when it comes to your body and look. It seems like you can never be “perfect” enough for the fashion world. As a model, I got used to constantly being criticized and quickly developed thick skin, but there are still too many models, most of them starting out at a very young age, that crack under the extreme pressures around their body and starve themselves before castings and photoshoots. Several model agencies in Asia are recording models’ measurements and weight on a weekly basis to ensure that they stay “in shape” and encourage them to follow extreme diets. Only if agencies and brands start to represent models of all sizes and stop trying to change models’ natural body types, the fashion world can become more size inclusive.
I believe the more we represent diverse body types in the mainstream media, the more people will learn to love and accept their body as is. By steering away from the unrealistic expectation to look a certain way, people will develop more positive body images and will be less likely to fall victim to diet culture and to develop eating disorders or other harmful behaviours.
Let's remember that most of the pictures you see online are airbrushed and present unrealistic and unattainable bodies. So let’s not waste our time trying to look like the models featured in fashion campaigns, because not even the models themselves look like in these pictures. “Perfect” is only an illusion - we should not get caught up in it and should stop labeling bodies as “perfect” altogether!
Alicia Essig
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