Trump Side Effect #87: The gays have regained control of the fashion industry

After pretending to admire plump black models during the Great Awokening, bitchy fashion designers are back to anorexic models.

From the New York Times:

Why Ultrathin Is In

When it comes to fashion models, the body diversity revolution appears to be at an end.

By Vanessa Friedman

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014.

March 20, 2025, 11:38 a.m. ET

… After reaching a peak in 2021, when Paloma Elsesser became the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of American Vogue, body diversity has taken a clear downward trajectory, decreasing pretty much every season.

“The pendulum went one way, and now it’s swinging full force the other way,” said David Bonnouvrier, a founder of DNA Model Management.

According to the Vogue Business fall 2025 size inclusivity report, of 8,703 looks in 198 shows and presentations, only 2 percent were midsize (defined as U.S. size 6 to 12) and only 0.3 percent were plus-size. (Plus-size and midsize models are also known as “curve models.”) …

Case in point: Nina Ricci, a label that under the designer Harris Reed has been known for its inclusivity, featured only one midsize model — out of 38. By contrast, Mr. Reed’s debut Nina Ricci show, in March 2023, opened with Precious Lee, a plus-size model, and included three more plus-size women in the show.

Judging from pictures of him, Harris Reed might be the gayest man alive:

The issue is not simply that there are fewer curve models on the runway; the thin models seem to be getting thinner. Even in a world that has long prized the idea of bodies as coat hangers, there were more visible rib cages, jutting collarbones and daisy chains of vertebrae than have been seen since the concept of BMI and model health was introduced by the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2012. …

“All the plus-size girls went to midsize because of Ozempic, and all the midsize girls went to standard size,” Ms. Taymour said. “Everyone’s on it. It’s a drug that has created a skinnier industry and a new trend that skinnier and skinnier is better.”

It is true that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Ozempic for weight loss in 2021 coincided with the shrinking runway trend. However, Mr. Bonnouvrier of DNA Models said he believed something deeper was going on — that the swing away from body diversity was part of a general swing away from social progressivism.

“As much as anything, this is a cultural conversation,” Mr. Bonnouvrier said. With respect to model inclusivity, he said, brands “are walking away because of what is going on in the United States.”

Sara Ziff, the founder of the Model Alliance, an organization that champions models’ rights, agreed. Extreme thinness among models is “not really new — this kind of thing is cyclical,” she said. But this time around, she added, “it seems to echo the current political climate.”

“It’s frustrating to see the industry take a step back,” Ms. Ziff said. “When those on the creative side of fashion could be using their platform to share progressive values, it seems like many are acquiescing rather than pushing back.”

Peer pressure to diversify the runway in the wake of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements led to a noticeable shift in conceptions of beauty, Mr. Bonnouvrier said. But with D.E.I. now under scrutiny as part of the Trump administration’s war on wokeness, its fashion expression, including diversity of size, is under pressure. A retreat to the most conservative and traditional approach for showcasing clothes means a retreat to old-fashioned stereotypes of beauty. And that generally translates to homogenous, largely white and thin models, despite the fact that such body types are not representative of the fashion-buying population at large.

Paywall here.