March 22, 2025 — In her Critic’s Notebook for the New York Times, Vanessa Friedman makes the case that the fashion industry is abandoning any pretense of embracing size diversity. Ultrathin is in, she says. All signs point to the political and cultural winds blowing in a different direction: “Peer pressure to diversify the runway in the wake of […]
October 15, 2024 — For several years, it looked like the fashion industry might be moving from promoting a “thin ideal” to making room for size diversity. In fact, France passed a law in 2017 to ban the use of models with unhealthy thinness in the industry. Vogue started producing an annual report in size inclusivity in 2023. But […]
September 10, 2024 — Consumer spending is by far the biggest driver of U.S. economic growth. So you can be sure that businesses are paying close attention to the disruption in longstanding consumer behavior patterns that GLP-1 medicines are bringing. People are buying new clothes, better food, spending less on weight watching, and more on health. Make no mistake. […]
June 13, 2019 — This week the Telegraph published a very touching essay by Tanya Gold, describing her heartfelt concern for the health of mannequins. Specifically, she’s concerned about a Nike mannequin she’s diagnosed with obesity: She is immense, gargantuan, vast. She heaves with fat. She is, in every measure, obese, and she is not readying herself for a […]
December 17, 2017 — French culture faces a dilemma. Paris has long held a global reputation for its fashion. And along the way, a preoccupation with thinness became part of that culture. It came to define a social order of body image in France. Thin privilege. But earlier this year, Gabrielle Deydier exposed the ugly side of that social order […]
September 12, 2017 — Fashion has long been a safe harbor for fat shaming – both subtle and explicit. Headlines from New York Fashion Week might make you think this harsh reality is fading fast. But a broader view would say not so fast. French culture prizes both style and cuisine, and according to Gabrielle Deydier, that puts a […]
