Kim, Khloe Kardashian’s recent pictures a sign ‘size 0’ is back

Recent photos of Kim and Khloe Kardashian have signalled the “disappointing” return of a dangerous era could be upon us again.

Half a year has passed since Kim Kardashian informed the world, from the steps of the Met Gala, that she’d shed 7.5kg in three weeks to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s iconic Jean Louis gown.

It was, according to some, a “milestone” in the event’s history – one that generated dozens of headlines, declarations of admiration and, in true Kardashian fashion, plenty of outrage.

But the 41-year-old’s gleeful weight loss admission also marked, as writer Marielle Elizabeth noted in a piece for British Vogue last week, “a shift in tone … ushering in the end of an era that at least claimed to celebrate curvy bodies”.

Of course, the diet of one woman is not wholly to blame – representative, as Elle’s Lucy Cocoran put it, of “one cog in a much larger machine that has existed to oppress women for countless decades”.

Since Miu Miu’s now-infamous low-rise mini skirt was paraded down the runway at Paris Fashion Week last October, there’s been a collective sense of dread that the return of Y2K fashion, an era marked by the rise of public fat shaming, also means once again upholding a sole body type as the gold standard: thin.

Kardashian’s shimmy up The Met steps, Monroe’s dress clinging to her new, slimmer figure, was simply the final nail in the body positivity movement’s coffin.

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Kim Kardashian’s weight loss marked ‘a shift in tone … ushering in the end of an era that at least claimed to celebrate curvy bodies’. Picture: Instagram

Kardashian ‘was so foundational to, and commercially profited from, a movement towards curvier bodies’. Picture: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Khloe Kardashian’s figure has concerned fans in recent months. Picture: Instagram

In the months since, the search terms “size 0 return” and “size 0 is coming back kardashians” have gained traction on TikTok, as rumours abound that both Kardashian and her sister Khloe have reversed their (alleged) Brazilian Butt Lifts – a plastic surgery procedure intended to add curves, rather than take them away.

Off the back of the ready-to-wear runways in New York, London, Milan and Paris last week, British broadcaster and writer Pandora Sykes flagged “the shrinking” of the famous sisters as “relevant” to what some commentators dubbed “the thinnest [Fashion Week] season in years”.

“Usually I’d say nothing about ‘an individual’ (& it’s not fair to call out one woman) but their dedication to slimness right now … when they were so foundational to, and commercially profited from, a movement towards curvier bodies, makes this actually, super f**king relevant,” Sykes wrote in a series of tweets.

1] Great to see the catwalks filled with extremely thin women again! (See: Valentino for just one eg.) Srsly tho, my friends attending fashion shows called this “the thinnest season in yrs”. IMHO this is not unconnected to the redux of Y2K, an era known for the Size 00 trend…

— Pandora Sykes (@PINsykes) October 7, 2022

please, I am so tired of this. I know we're all pretending this isn't about bringing back thin worship or whatever but I can't keep doing this https://t.co/sFIrsFCSag

— Tyler McCall (@eiffeltyler) October 4, 2022

While “that standard was still an unattainable ideal”, Elizabeth wrote in her piece for Vogue, “it was when we saw increased representation and celebration of larger bodies”.

“For the last decade my body briefly stopped being a liability … Now suddenly I find myself thrust backward,” she added, referring to the lack of body representation on this season’s runways.

“I’m left wondering what this backslide means for the fashion industry; for the fat liberationists whose cries for change went beyond surface-level self-love to fighting for workplace rights that still aren’t enshrined in law; and for the younger generation who are about to learn what it’s like being fat in a time of thin worship.”

Kim Kardashian on the runway at Dolce & Gabbana. Picture: Miguel Medina/AFP

Bella Hadid at the Miu Miu presentation. Picture: Emmanual Dunand/AFP

Curve model and content creator Remi Bader, who went to both New York and Paris Fashion Week, was “super excited about this season”, as someone who had “never really attended shows where I’d be invited and sit in the front row”. Instead, the experience “was definitely a let-down”.

“For the shows I attended, I either saw there was one, two or three plus size models in the shows and walking, but then you look and see [whether] they are actually selling that size to the public, and a lot of [designers] aren’t,” she said in a TikTok.

Curve model and content creator Remi Bader went to both New York and Paris Fashion Week. Picture: TikTok

Bader said the experience, which she had been ‘super excited about’, was ‘definitely a let-down’. Picture: TikTok

“They’re actually custom-making one piece for that model to show that they’re somewhat being ‘inclusive’, but then they don’t even sell that.

“And then also what was disappointing is looking around the room, seeing that I’m invited and feeling so included because someone like me with my body shape is sitting in the front row, but I look around and I don’t see anyone that looks like me there.”

Bader questioned why fashion houses like Prada or Givenchy “with all the money in the world … are so anti-putting different body types in their shows?”

“Why is it 2022 and they literally can’t? And it’s not even that they can’t – it’s interesting that some of these designers did in 2019 and [now] we’re almost going back in time and it only has gotten worse and less inclusive,” she said.

“It was very disappointing for me to see. It made me not want to be a part of it, made me wonder why I was even there, and I just think the conversation needs to continue, and that’s really it.”