When the Met Gala had confirmed “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” as the theme for their 2023 show, it prompted renewed scrutiny of the late designer's controversial remarks, most notably his criticism of curvy models in the fashion show. To the German magazine Focus, Lagerfeld, in 2009, confided that “No one wants to see curvy women.” Lagerfeld's disdain towards plus-sized models was in sync with the fashion's prevailing attitude. However, the widespread outrage over his fatphobic remarks also signalled a change of wind, triggered by a steady rise in the body positivity movement in the early 2010s. It was a cultural response to the unrealistic beauty standards perpetuated by media and society at large, promoting acceptance of all body types, irrespective of size, shape, stretch marks, or skin tone. 

Influencers and activists utilised social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to create awareness about radical self-acceptance, also highlighting the lack of representation of diverse body types in mainstream media. Instagram has over 12.5 million posts tagged under #BodyPositivity. Safe to say, progress was being made on all fronts. Legacy fashion houses were forced to reconsider their maniacal obsession with extremely thin models; high-street brands expanded their catalogues for mid-sized and plus-size consumers; and people were getting more comfortable in showing their bodies online. 

However, amidst the rising popularity of miraculous weight-loss drug, Ozempic, and the comeback of fashion trends from the nineties and early noughties, the body positivity movement seems to have taken a backseat. Thin is back in vogue—or as some would say, it had never left. The New York Times critic Vanessa Friedman, attending Jason Wu's show at New York Fashion Week 2023, commented that she was “distracted by the extreme skinniness of many of the models”. The Vogue Business Size Inclusivity Report for 2025 noted that less than 0.8 per cent of 8,763 models presented across 208 shows and presentations were plus size. 

Kais Sundarani, the plus-size male model from Mumbai, feels the progress has been stalled post-pandemic. “It is very disturbing, to be honest. Most of the brands capitalised on the trend. Around 2018, plus-size models were welcomed with open hands, since brands wanted to send a message that they are very inclusive brands that celebrate beauty in all shapes. They have again gone back to the convention, where certain body types are prioritised over others,” says Sundarani, whose modelling work has also dried up significantly in the last two years. 

Midhun Jayakrishnan, the founder and director of Janair Management, a modelling agency from Bengaluru, points out that an overwhelming majority of the consumer base is in medium and large categories, so brands usually cater to them. However, by prioritising models who adhere to conventional beauty standards, brands, knowingly or unknowingly, are not only alienating curvy customers but also putting the onus on them to shed kilos to feel pretty. “There are plus-sized models who would get daily catalogue shoot requests from e-commerce platforms Myntra, but they have recently cut down on their plus-size campaign, so there is less work for plus-size models,” says Jayakrishnan, who remains optimistic about the demand for curvy models is only going to rise. 

What has also impacted the movement is the retro resurgence, as most of the fashion trends that dominated the headlines last year were rooted in nostalgia. Brands went big on giving a modern twist to the old style, and the result was hundreds of reinterpretations of styles from the yore, like the revival of Y2K, cottagecore, and blokecore amongst others. But in the quest to redefine their nostalgia, fashion also brought back the harmful trends of using perilously thin models, prompting many who wanted to emulate the trends to lose weight. Sundarani says, “many plus-size models he has worked with have become too thin to lap up on the ongoing trend. They realised the only way to get more work is to lose the weight”. 

No point in guessing that these models went down the Ozempic route to shed kilos, as Sundarani confirms. Over the years, pharmaceutical companies have come up with a series of weight-loss drugs and hacks to lose weight, but none have matched the level of popularity Ozempic has garnered in a short time. From Oprah Winfrey and Kelly Clarkson to Amy Schumer and Sharon Osbourne, the list of A-Listers who admitted using ozempic is pretty long. Numerous influencers, who built a massive following on social media by sharing messages about body positivity, too could not resist the allure of Ozempic. "I know numerous such body positivity influencers who lost weight through Ozempic. They have now diverted from their original mission and post different types of content on Instagram,” notes Sundarani. While some influencers sold out to Ozempic, many like Dhivyaa Vikram, the dancer, actor, and founder of Size Beyond, continue to challenge conventional beauty standards and promote self-acceptance to her followers. “Body positivity begins with self-love. It's very easy to fall for quick fixes like Ozempic when you have not done a lot of inner work, and get easily fazed by comments, which can be nasty no doubt. But this will only lower your self-confidence,” says Vikram. 

While the wonder drug, as it is called, can cure a medical problem, it also leaves a cultural quagmire with serious repercussions. “Thinness is a way to perform moral discipline, even if one pursues it through morally ambiguous means. Subconsciously, consciously, politically, economically and culturally, obesity signals moral laxity,” says Olga Khazan, the author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change, in the Atlantic Radio podcast. The craze for Ozempic epitomises the ever-rising scope of the wellness industry, which thrives on an insatiable pursuit of perfection. To be free from sickness is not enough anymore; you need to constantly strive to be the best version of yourself. The body positivity movement, meanwhile, flourished as a counterpoint to the never-ending pursuit of modern wellness, championing the acceptance of our uniqueness instead of fixing our 'flaws'. “The decline of the movement and the subsequent rise of weight-loss drugs just proves that our culture prioritises physical appearance over anything else. But when everyone starts taking a pill to lose weight, there would be no representation of diverse body types in the media,” says Vikram. This would merely amplify the pressure to conform, leaving individuals grappling with the mental distress that arises from failing to meet unattainable body ideals. Sanjay Chugh, the senior consultant psychiatrist from New Delhi, says, “Any standard that cannot be attained by a great majority of people is unrealistic. If people start chasing such ideals, they are more likely to fail than succeed, and this will only send them in a spiral of mental stress”.