, which depicts a fork piercing a plastic syringe, the cover reads, 'So many people are suddenly thinner, having swapped their old diets for a dose of the diabetes drug Ozempic.' Hitting newsstands on 27 February, coincidentally the day after the last show of MFW, the conversation seems to have come full circle. We still live in an age where being a certain, very specific, size appears to be the ultimate achievement. To put it crudely, the fetishisation of thin is still in.
, the smallest model on the catwalk was a UK 10. 'In London there is an expressive group of inclusive emerging designers, and we have been slowly carving out a space for ourselves over the last 3-4 years,' she tells. The Brazilian designer, who shows as part of the famous talent incubator Fashion East, wanted the casting for her most recent show to reflect her real customer base, hence why the sizes ranged to a UK 20.
In terms of whether the fashion industry is moving forwards or backwards in terms of showing more size inclusivity, Monët-Lauren says that, season to season, it feels like a guessing game. 'Gratitude and excitement are partnered with a niche anxiety as a curve model; you never know whether your body is ‘in’ or not,' she says. 'In a historical context, there’s no denying that it’s moved forward from the traditional norm.
Although this is certainly the case, Karoline similarly acknowledges that size inclusivity isn't a linear process. As that user commented on Instagram, a slow edge forward can quickly be supplanted by a slip backwards. As well as new cultural touchstones that are 'everywhere', like the rise of Ozempic, plenty of returning fashion trends, like the low-rise jeans of the Noughties, worn with a stretch of washboard stomach, recall the 'heroine chic' era of the late '90s.