Fashion world's thin, white body ideal remains unchanged despite diversity push

The fashion world's beauty standards have seen little structural change over the past 25 years, despite a perceived increase in diversity. A comprehensive analysis of nearly 800,000 fashion images, conducted by an international team including Austrian researchers, reveals that the dominant body ideal remains thin and white.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, examined images from fashion shows, advertisements, magazine covers, and editorial content globally from 2000 to 2024. While the researchers observed a greater variety of body types and ethnicities appearing in media and on runways, they categorized these as "outliers." This suggests that while brands may be featuring more diverse models, the underlying ideal has not fundamentally shifted.

"There is, of course, a strong movement for greater diversity in body sizes for quite some time," said Katharina Ledebur from the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) Vienna, one of the study's participants. "Many brands have responded by hiring more diverse models." However, the data indicates that this has led to a symbolic change rather than a structural one, with the average ideal remaining consistent.

The research, which also incorporated AI-assisted image analysis and health data from surveys, found that the ideal of being thin and white persists across various representation areas within the fashion industry. This enduring standard has significant implications for body image and potentially contributes to issues like eating disorders, as the ideals presented by the media and fashion industry often remain unrealistic for the general population.

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There is, of course, a strong movement for greater diversity in body sizes for quite some time. Many brands have responded by hiring more diverse models.