For centuries, Fashion has been tightly connected to a culture of idealizing a body type in order to establish trends and patterns, specifically for women. Even in the 19th century, before fashion shows and magazines, women would be laced in tight corsets in order to create an idealized “hourglass” figure. The danger of these items characterized an era in fashion where women were tightly tied, compressing their organs and muscles that led to rib carriage deformations and even suffocations.
Rib Cage of an elderly woman in the late 19th century
In the early 90s, a controversial style in the fashion world arised, heroine chic. During this time, beauty patterns featured on the cover of magazines became inhuman by selling unrealistic bodies of extremely underweight models with pale skin, tired eyes, straight hair and overall, melancholic features.
Kate Moss on the cover of a Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1993
The attention-calling name “heroin chic” comes from the glamorization of the time of drug and sexual abuse in the fashion world, specifically in the modelling industry. During the decade of 1990, the UK and many other countries were undergoing troubled times in their economy, societies, and politics due to the arrival of new and unknown technologies. In spite of this worldwide crisis, the fashion world reflected the disobedient and turbulent ideals trending in the youngest generation. Finally, this style marked the poverty and remoteness of mainly British and American societies in the 90s.
During this period, photography had a great influence in the spread and marking of the style. Photographs captured images that presented a contrast between the detached reality of poverty and drugs and a sense of reality and authenticity. Later on, by the mid 90s, these “casual” photographs were even being featured on well known magazines, such as Vogue and Cosmopolitan.
Photographs by Davide Sorrenti who, in an interview claimed: “(…) it’s my world, and my world is one of melancholy.'”
During the heroin chic era, Calvin Klein featured a brand new discovered model that would mark the 90s forever, 19 year old Kate Moss. From this campaign, Moss became a symbol of the idealized slender body figure and united with other supermodels of the time, such as Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, to promote this aesthetic from photo shoots to the famous “casual” pictures of the time.
Kate’s success, however, was limited due to the consequences of using drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Accused of promoting eating disorders, nicknamed “Cocaine Kate”, smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day, and frequently wild partying in LA and London, Moss entered rehab in 1998 and got out one year later.
As the fashion industry has a great impact on the young generation, especially women between the ages of 10 and 20, the promotion of anorexia and drug abuse that came with this trend became very dangerous for young girls. For instance, one of Kate’s most memorable quotes was her mantra “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” that was (and still is) featured on pro-anorexia websites, shirts and even fridge magnets.
Kate Moss on a 2005 cover of the Daily Mirror, a celebrity gossip magazine
Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista
Furthermore, the music business influenced and was influenced by this era featuring artists such as Kurt Cobain, vocalist of the band Nirvana who frequently used heroin as a cure for his depression and chronic stomach pain. In the early 90s, grunge, a new genre of rock music, emerged from Seattle’s working class and highly impacted bands such as Nirvana and Creed. Cobain and other grunge artists popularized trends such as baggy sweaters, converse All stars and baggy, old looking jeans.
In 1997, president Bill Clinton paused his morning prayer to position himself on the newest style; ”You do not need to glamorize addiction to sell clothes”, he argues, “(…) ‘It’s not beautiful; it’s ugly. And this is not about art; it’s about life and death. And glorifying death is not good for any society.”
After addressing the issue to 35 mayors, the president addressed new projects to reduce drug abuse by giving adequate treatment to drug addicts and stopping the promotion, specifically in the fashion business, of addiction and unhealthy images.
Certainly the heroin chic era brought a generation wide impact on society, generating the fight for body positivity in the fashion world and bringing discussion about the relationship between society and fashion. In 2007, for instance, size zero models were banned from the catwalk. Advancing to the present day, with social media platforms, as the fight for inclusion increases so does the usage of filters and photoships in images.
Big lips, small waists and wide hips are no evolution of the dangerous unhealthy trends in the 90s. On the other hand, social media has raised awareness to issues such as eating disorders and body dysmorphia, which were really known and studied in previous decades.
Nonetheless, young girls may still look at these edited pictures and wonder why they don’t have these unrealistic features published all over instagram and snapchat. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do to stop the usage of filters in magazines, posts and ads, but we certainly can prevent the impact of negative fashion trends in our society. As Nithyaprakash Venkatasamy claimed in Fashion trends and their impact on society ;“Fashion trends come and go; meanwhile a society’s values are established and evolving characteristic to their beliefs and culture.” Finally, we must keep in mind that it is up to us, as part of this group, to either accept and popularize the trend or not. In order to make this decision, we must acknowledge our values and understand the consequences of the products we are consuming.
EAC PRESS 
