Historical Shifts: The Ever-Moving Target
Bodies for Sale: How the Fashion Industry Manufactures the “Ideal” Form
SOFIA K.
#fashion
“Fashion doesn’t shape trends—it shapes bodies. And we keep paying the price.”
INTRODUCTION
In glossy magazines and digital feeds, the “perfect” body is not just admired—it’s constructed. Modified. Filtered. Marketed. The fashion industry has always dictated body standards, but in the age of TikTok, AI, and biohacking, those standards have become dangerously fluid and insidiously unrealistic.
The body has become a fashion product—something to style, sell, and sculpt. But who decides what’s desirable? And who profits from this desire?
Body ideals have never been fixed—they evolve with politics, capitalism, and power.
• In the Renaissance, full-figured bodies symbolized wealth and fertility.
• In the 1920s, the “flapper” aesthetic demanded boyish thinness and small breasts.
• The 1990s brought the “heroin chic” look: pale, gaunt, and hollow-eyed.
• The 2010s, shaped by Kim Kardashian and Instagram influencers, normalized exaggerated curves—yet ironically, these curves often required surgery, waist trainers, or Photoshop to achieve.
Fashion doesn’t just reflect these ideals—it manufactures and monetizes them.
A 2022 study by the University of Melbourne found that 78% of female fashion models were underweight by WHO standards. And yet, these bodies are considered “aspirational.”
• In the Renaissance, full-figured bodies symbolized wealth and fertility.
• In the 1920s, the “flapper” aesthetic demanded boyish thinness and small breasts.
• The 1990s brought the “heroin chic” look: pale, gaunt, and hollow-eyed.
• The 2010s, shaped by Kim Kardashian and Instagram influencers, normalized exaggerated curves—yet ironically, these curves often required surgery, waist trainers, or Photoshop to achieve.
Fashion doesn’t just reflect these ideals—it manufactures and monetizes them.
A 2022 study by the University of Melbourne found that 78% of female fashion models were underweight by WHO standards. And yet, these bodies are considered “aspirational.”
runs on manufactured
Historical Shifts: The Ever-Moving Target
Shapewear.
• Skincare.
• Fat-freezing.
• Weight-loss teas.
• Surgical filters.
• AI “face-tuning” apps.
Each year, the beauty and fashion-adjacent industries generate over $500 billion, much of it by creating and then offering to “solve” the flaws they invented.
And yes, fashion is complicit.
Runways still favor tall, thin, Eurocentric bodies.
Luxury brands rarely use disabled or visibly aging models.
Campaigns that claim to be “inclusive” often tokenize difference rather than normalize it.
As writer Jia Tolentino noted in The New Yorker, “The new body positivity often just repackages old hierarchies with better lighting.”
• Skincare.
• Fat-freezing.
• Weight-loss teas.
• Surgical filters.
• AI “face-tuning” apps.
Each year, the beauty and fashion-adjacent industries generate over $500 billion, much of it by creating and then offering to “solve” the flaws they invented.
And yes, fashion is complicit.
Runways still favor tall, thin, Eurocentric bodies.
Luxury brands rarely use disabled or visibly aging models.
Campaigns that claim to be “inclusive” often tokenize difference rather than normalize it.
As writer Jia Tolentino noted in The New Yorker, “The new body positivity often just repackages old hierarchies with better lighting.”
The Economics of Insecurity.
The Economics of Insecurity.
“
The fashion industry runs on manufactured insecurity. You cannot sell self-love. But you can sell solutions.
sell self-love. But you can sell solutions.
Digital Distortion: Fashion in the Age of Filters
We no longer look at fashion—we consume it through layers of unreality.
Instagram and TikTok have introduced the era of hyper-visual culture, where bodies are infinitely editable. Filters elongate limbs. AI avatars wear couture. Apps like Facetune blur cellulite and enlarge eyes in seconds.
This distorts how we perceive ourselves and others.
The Royal Society for Public Health (UK) reported that 91% of teenage girls feel unhappy with their bodies after using social media for more than an hour.
And now, digital fashion models like Shudu Gram or Imma—CGI women created by male designers—are being hired by brands, often paid more than real models.
Instagram and TikTok have introduced the era of hyper-visual culture, where bodies are infinitely editable. Filters elongate limbs. AI avatars wear couture. Apps like Facetune blur cellulite and enlarge eyes in seconds.
This distorts how we perceive ourselves and others.
The Royal Society for Public Health (UK) reported that 91% of teenage girls feel unhappy with their bodies after using social media for more than an hour.
And now, digital fashion models like Shudu Gram or Imma—CGI women created by male designers—are being hired by brands, often paid more than real models.
Digital Distortion: Fashion in the Age of Filters
AGE
INTRODUCTION
Race, Disability, and
The “ideal” body in fashion is still largely white, slim, and able-bodied. Attempts at inclusivity are often aesthetic gestures, not systemic reforms.
• Racial diversity? Often limited to “ethnically ambiguous” models.
• Disability inclusion? Rare, and mostly in token campaigns.
• Size inclusion? Brands like Savage x Fenty get praise, but plus-size options in high fashion remain minimal.
• Racial diversity? Often limited to “ethnically ambiguous” models.
• Disability inclusion? Rare, and mostly in token campaigns.
• Size inclusion? Brands like Savage x Fenty get praise, but plus-size options in high fashion remain minimal.
In her essay “The Color of Beauty,” writer Mireille Miller-Young points out that even when brands include Black bodies, they are often light-skinned, young, and hyper-sexualized.
Resisting the Mold: Artists, Designers, Movements
But not all fashion is complicit.
Designers like Becca McCharen-Tran (Chromat) and Sinéad Burke have actively redefined who gets to wear high fashion.
Brands like No Sesso, Selkie, and The Garment use fashion to celebrate bodily variation instead of disguising it.
And then there are digital disruptors:
• Activists like Jamila Jamil challenge body shaming with radical transparency.
• Projects like #BodyNeutrality aim to move beyond appearance-based value.
Designers like Becca McCharen-Tran (Chromat) and Sinéad Burke have actively redefined who gets to wear high fashion.
Brands like No Sesso, Selkie, and The Garment use fashion to celebrate bodily variation instead of disguising it.
And then there are digital disruptors:
• Activists like Jamila Jamil challenge body shaming with radical transparency.
• Projects like #BodyNeutrality aim to move beyond appearance-based value.
#fashion
Fashion may invite difference—but only on its terms.
Exclusion
In Sofia K.’s view, true resistance is not just about different sizes—it’s about rejecting the obsession with perfection entirely.
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Conclusion: Dismantling the Mirror
Sofia K. argues that we must dismantle the mirror that fashion has built—a mirror that only reflects a narrow slice of humanity. That mirror needs cracks. Shards. Smudges. Real bodies.
The future of fashion must be radically human.
It must celebrate not only visibility, but vulnerability.
Not only bodies that sell—but bodies that live.
And until that future arrives, we must keep asking the question:
The future of fashion must be radically human.
It must celebrate not only visibility, but vulnerability.
Not only bodies that sell—but bodies that live.
And until that future arrives, we must keep asking the question:
“Whose body is being erased, and who profits from its absence?”
#fashion
#fashion
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