Women’s bodies in the fashion world: diversity is on the rise, but the ideal remains the same

In a large-scale study, an international research team analysed around 793,000 images of catwalk models, advertising campaigns, magazine covers and editorial fashion features. Using AI-supported image analysis and data from clinical health models, the team investigated how the body sizes and shapes of female models have evolved over time.

Key findings

Although the visible diversity of body shapes has increased, the ‘typical’ model body has remained virtually unchanged on average since 2000. The increasing diversity stems primarily from a small number of models at the extremes, not from a shift in the prevailing ideal.

• The range of female model body types is growing, but the dominant body ideal has remained stable over the past 20 years. Diversity has primarily been added in the form of external characteristics.

Plus-size models and reality

A comparison with health data from the US population reveals significant differences:

• Even plus-size models are, on average, still shorter than the average American woman. The overlap between real-life body measurements and fashion images is extremely small.

Diversity and overlaps

Ethnic diversity has also increased: the proportion of non-white models rose from around 13% in 2011 to over 40% in recent years. However, it is evident that different diversity characteristics often coincide:

• Plus-size models are 4.5 times more likely to be non-white. Diversity is thus concentrated among a relatively small number of models.

Regulation and impact

The study also examined regulatory approaches in Europe.

• In Milan, a fixed minimum body mass index (BMI) limit led to a measurable decline in the number of extremely thin models.

• In France, a more flexible system involving medical certificates did not have a comparable effect.

Conclusion

Fashion has become visibly more diverse in terms of women’s bodies, yet the underlying ideal of beauty has remained largely stable. The findings suggest that the inclusion of additional characteristics alone is not sufficient to fundamentally change norms.

What about male models?

Tight, idealised body standards also persisted among male models. In contrast to women’s bodies, these have changed even less. Due to limited data availability, the study focuses on female models.

Authors

• Karolina Sliwa: WU Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.

• Katharina Ledebur: Complexity Science Hub, Austria.

• Louis Boucherie: DTU Compute, the Technical University of Denmark, and Center for Social Data Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

• Sagar Kumar: Network Science Institute, Northeastern University, Boston, USA.

• August Lohse: DTU Compute, Denmark.

Study

Cultural evolution of beauty standards. IN: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (Mai 2026).