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Femal Bodies in Fashion: Greater Diversity, Stable Ideal

27/05/2026

A new international study involving WU Vienna reveals that the fashion industry appears more diverse today than two decades ago, yet the prevailing beauty ideal has changed very little.

For this large-scale analysis, an interdisciplinary research team examined around 793,000 images from runway shows, advertising campaigns, magazine covers, and editorial fashion content. Using AI-based image analysis combined with data from clinical health models, the study traced how the body measurements and shapes of female models have evolved since 2000.

Greater Diversity, but Only at the Margins

The findings show that the range of represented body types has increased. However, this rise in diversity is mainly driven by a small number of models at the extreme ends of the spectrum: those with particularly small or large body measurements. The average “typical” model body, by contrast, has remained largely unchanged over the entire study period. In other words, diversity has been added without altering the dominant beauty ideal.

Plus-Size Remains Underrepresented

A comparison with health data from the U.S. population highlights a clear discrepancy: even plus-size models, on average, do not match the body measurements of the average American woman. The overlap between real bodies and their representation in fashion therefore remains very limited.

Rising Ethnic Diversity

One positive development is the increase in ethnic diversity: the share of non-white models has risen from around 13% in 2011 to over 40% in recent years. However, the study also shows that different diversity characteristics often overlap. For example, plus-size models are significantly more likely to be non-white, meaning that diversity tends to be concentrated among relatively few individuals.

Regulation Shows Mixed Effects

The researchers also examined regulatory measures in Europe. In Milan, the introduction of a binding minimum Body Mass Index (BMI) threshold led to a measurable decline in extremely thin models. A more flexible system in France, based on medical certificates, did not produce a comparable effect.

Conclusion: Visible Change, Stable Norm

The study demonstrates that increasing diversity alone is not sufficient to fundamentally transform entrenched beauty standards. While representation has become more varied, the underlying ideal remains largely unchanged.

A Look at Male Models

Strict and idealized body norms also persist among male models. These have changed even less over the period studied. Due to more limited data availability, however, the study focused primarily 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) (May 2026).

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