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IIn the 1960s, thinness was the new beauty ideal; Cultural changes meant that fashion began to favor teenagers rather than older women, with a slender almost childlike body symbolizing the new obsession with youth. It later re-emerged as a 1990s fashion fantasy, with young beautiful girls taking over catwalks and billboards. He was the ultimate cool-independent, rebellious and effortlessly glamorous, living on cigarettes and champagne and we all wanted to be like him. As the decade progressed, curvy models began to emerge. Sophie Dahl’s 1997 runway appearance was a counterweight to the rise of “heroin chic”, and she later became the face of Tom’s Ford’s Opium in 2000. The body positivity movement in the 2010s was fueled by social media, which challenged traditional beauty standards. The movement highlighted the intersectionality with curve, queer, and disabled bodies at the forefront, a long-awaited presence in an industry still dominated by the same silhouette.
So why are we returning to exclusivity in 2025? Why is skinny popular again? I sat down with an award winning director julia parnell (The Chills, Six60, Till the Lights Go Out, Choir Games), and Curve models Isabella Moore and Hannah Janes to get the inside story on the new attraction.
In an age of Oz and changing beauty ideals, this documentary examines the emotional and professional costs of visibility for plus size women in fashion and offers an inside look at the global conversation around body diversity.
Documentary director Parnell is known for advocating human-centered stories on music, culture, and social issues. She says: “As a documentary maker, but really as a human being, I’ve always been interested in fashion, art as a mirror. Clothes shape our identities and the industry shapes our self-worth. I love how dressing reflects who I am and how I feel. The urgency to make a fashion documentary came when we saw a push back from body diversity.”
Parnell’s co-creator, Evelyn Ebury, comes from a fashion background in both the UK and New Zealand. It was her idea to approach model and opera singer Isabella Moore, who had interviewed her several times during her curve modeling career, to get the part.
As this idea took shape, it exposed hidden truths. “It wasn’t really until we were shooting fashion week in February this year, and we noticed a 50 percent drop in plus size and curve representation on all the major catwalks,” explains Parnell.
It’s no coincidence that this is happening at a time when GLP-1 is being talked about like a cosmetic procedure in gym locker rooms. “I don’t think any of us should be dictating who wants to take drugs to be thin. But why they’re doing that is the most interesting question to me as a documentary maker, as a director. The fashion industry and Isabella’s story was like a canvas, but really what I wanted to try and understand is what are the internalized messages in both the fashion industry and the culture that make us feel like the only acceptable version of body is thin.”
It is the first documentary series of its kind linking Pacific, New Zealand and UK perspectives – offering a cross-cultural lens on the promises, pressures and contradictions of fashion. As Ozempic and Wegovi make headlines, the retreat from physical diversity is unfolding in real time. This series doesn’t just highlight the industry; This explains why true inclusion remains so difficult to maintain, especially as bodies become objects and trends change.
The series features voices such as Felicity Hayward and Alex Light (UK influencers and body image advocates) challenging global beauty standards; British fashion leaders – including series executive producer and British Fashion Council executive board member Jamie Gill and (fashion) Minority Report founder Daniel Peters. Designer Adeline Lee and casting agent Madeleine Ostley are pushing non-traditional beauty from the catwalk to casting – these are not outsiders criticizing fashion. They are living it.
New Zealand-born Samoan soprano Isabella Moore is a famous curve model. She says, “Much of my motivation to participate came from my frustration at seeing the industry shift towards smaller sizes for the better and seeing the decline in demand for models above a certain size.”
“I entered the industry when it was at peak inclusivity around 2019, we were starting to see curvy bodies like Ashley Graham and Precious Lee in fashion on a regular basis. When I saw that beauty standards were coming back to the idea of thin, and accepting that larger bodies had just become a trend, it was really scary.”
Moore is concerned that the media and society are promoting fatphobia, causing people to think there is nothing worse than being fat. “I felt angry at myself and at women who are made to feel like they aren’t good enough because they don’t fit into a narrow beauty standard that only praises one type of beauty. The documentary questions the rules by which we live not only as women but as people, it encourages us all to celebrate our individuality and take back our power.”
Moore says: “It’s not just [fewer] Booking, this is also the amount of photos taken on the shoot. Before brands wanted images of the front, side, back, all the styles, but now it’s just a very basic front shot to show that the product is available in size 18. There has been some change. Celebrities famous for their curves have lost weight dramatically – Kim Kardashian slimmed down to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s dress for the Met Ball 2022 – slimming down via social media has led to a new obsession with thinness.
British curve model Hannah Janes has been in the industry for 20 years. Her career began as a UK size 4 – 8 model at the age of 12, but she made the transition naturally so as not to put her body and mental health through the trauma of eating disorders. She says: “It was not a good mental health decision for me to work as a straight model, that change has completely changed my life.”
“We don’t shoot curves,” Jens has first-hand experience. This provokes a familiar feeling of insecurity: “I’m wondering what you mean you don’t shoot the curve. Those regular weekly jobs have disappeared for me and now they’re shooting once a month. It’s been so weird since last year, calling my booker from a random hotel in Italy on the verge of burnout, thinking I need some time off this year, hoping I can pay my rent this month.”
She adds: “The word ‘fat’… is often used as an insult, people who want to insult me online will say “Oh, now you’re a fat model” as if that means I’m not a real model. It’s ingrained in our culture.”
The model casting experience is notorious for being ruthless, with casting directors barely looking at a model’s book. Moore describes what she went through: “A key moment we wanted to share was in Episode 2 where we recreated a pretty standard model casting experience. You’re basically given a white T-shirt and pair of skinny jeans to take some pictures. I don’t think people realize how vulnerable and powerful that moment was to share… going to a casting unfortunately not fitting into the clothes. Even though it didn’t click right away, I realized that that moment resonated with people. And how important that was to women like me. The garment size was probably the largest size offered, we couldn’t just say the next size up didn’t exist.”
In episode 5 Moore discusses the importance of her Samoan heritage. She says: “I don’t think culture has been recognized as something to celebrate in the fashion industry. I believe where I am today is because of my ambiguity, not because my Samoanness was being celebrated. In the documentary I say if I had looked more Samoan I don’t think I would have the career I have today and I struggle with a lot of guilt because of it, other Pacific people don’t get opportunities just because I fit into Western beauty ideals. “I sit more easily.”
While the rise of Ozempic is bringing thinness back, we have to look at the deeper question of why that beauty ideal is so desirable. Many scholars, activists, and cultural critics argue that racism is woven into the history of the fashion industry’s preference for the “thin ideal” and less curvy bodies. The current moment with GLP-1s and the resurgence of “thinness” is tapping into those deeper histories. Why are curves falling off runways, commercials, and even stock rooms? With the rise of right-wing politics around the world, it seems the runways have followed suit, pushing back body diversity and pushing curve models out of the frame. The documentary is important in raising all these questions, from brutal casting rooms to examining why brands don’t take off in the curve economy.
I’d love to hear your stories and opinions about creating a more inclusive fashion world. Please leave comments below or email me caroline.garland@independent.co.uk,