#10 has ozempic killed the plus size model?
In the words of Barbra Streisand, "Give him my regards, btw did you take Ozempic?"
Ozempic this Ozempic that. The branded medicine was originally designed to treat people with type 2 diabetes but now has become a household name as weight loss drug. From Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg, to Adele, Rebel Wilson and Amy Schumer. Ozempic has been Ozempic-ing, everybody is losing weight - all smiles around.
Why is it problematic you ask? Well given the drug is meant to be prescribed for diabetics, it’s pretty simple to understand. Why is a perfectly healthy, non obese, non diabetic person taking ozempic? Not to mention the side effects it has.
It has definitely been made worse by the rise of heroin chic and the skinny mid-2000s aesthetic. Yes, RIP the 2020 Ashley Graham Vogue cover, Hollywood body inclusivity movies, and plus sizes. When 2023 rolled around, plus size models were almost non-existent, with no larger models in the F/W 2023 Fashion Week, and Vogue not featuring a large body on its cover in three years.
Disorders like anorexia and bulimia are up. Meanwhile, over on Mumsnet, there’s a panicked post from a mother asking others whether she should keep her dose in the fridge: “I’m not keen on my daughter knowing I’m doing this“. “I keep mine in the airing cupboard,” counsels another, “because my husband doesn’t know I’m on it and there’s no chance he’ll look in there.” Deary me, what an absolute pickle we’ve got ourselves into over bodies and weight. The young are starving themselves while their parents squirrel ‘skinny jabs’ behind the Petit Filous. The neurosis and the critical self-examination and the hundreds and hundreds of pounds a month that people are paying to try and become smaller. Isn’t this madness?
But what did you expect, heroin chic has really stolen the limelight and with that, the whole heroin chic culture, which includes hyperpop music like Snow Strippers, Kim Petras and Bladee. Remember the grunge skinny girl on the cover of Snow Strippers’ 2023 album, ‘April Mixtape 3’? Or maybe the naked sad looking girl that is Sky Ferriera on her one and only album, ‘Night Time, My Time’? Yes, everyone is cool, skinny and hot.
So where are all the plus-sized models?
Okay, it’s not as if they’ve become extinct, though they could be. Let’s take a look at the recent Gucci 2025 Cruise show at the Tate Modern, it was like going back to the ironing-board models of the 1990s. Putting plus-size models on the runway is well and truly over, but the trend wasn't without its critics.
The truth is, the majority of women are not as large as a plus-size model, just substantially larger than the straight-size models. And plus-size and curvy models are in their own way, if used as role models, just as complicated a problem as skinny girls with the growing obesity issue throughout the Western world. Although the body positivity movement would encourage us all to love our bodies whatever shape or size they are, the odd plus-size girl on a catwalk is frankly neither here nor there when it comes to the way we feel about size.
The only time plus size models are used on the runway is for a ‘progressive’ brand - a couple I remember from London Fashion Week A/W24 are Di Petsa and Mark Fast.
It really is deeply frustrating when so many beautiful high fashion brands aren’t available in anything larger than a size 12, and often not even that. A quick trawl through some online sites the other day spotlighted how many brands simply don't appear to want to cater for any average size 16 British woman.
YSL had a linen pencil skirt to die for was unavailable above a 12. Gucci, where the logo-heavy collection of new designer Sabato de Sarno is so far failing to help boost its figures, seemed to offer hardly anything much larger than 12. Might they sell more if they had bigger sizes? They clearly don't think so.
But let’s contrast this with more affordable brands. Jigsaw's Peony skirt and linen trousers go up to size 18, John Lewis has a covetable black broderie anglaise dress available in size 20 while Boden, offers a pretty Sangria Sunset Tea dress up to size 22.
It's noticeable that Victoria Beckham's recent line for Mango cut off at a size 14 the same as her main line even though Mango routinely offers clothes up to 22.
But women designers are not necessarily their own sex's friend when it comes to the size issue. Miuccia Prada, a woman whose style I admire hugely, always uses the skinniest girls on her catwalks nor do I detect much difference in the look of the catwalk models at Chanel, since Virginie Viard took over from the famously fattist Karl Lagerfeld.
Ultimately it's unlikely there's going to be much of a change in the size of models and probably designers unless there's a radical re-thinking of the way we want to look. And frankly, the weight loss jab, isn’t doing much to resurrect the situation either.
