AI-generated models are attractive for one simple reason: they remove human limits. A real person has a body that ages, fluctuates, gets tired, carries asymmetry, carries history. An AI model does not. It can be adjusted, perfected, smoothed, slimmed, reshaped, relit, and regenerated without resistance. There is no baseline reality pushing back. Advertising has always idealised people, but it used to start from something that existed in the world.

In November 2009, Women's Wear Daily asked Kate Moss whether she had a motto. She said she had loads, and offered one: "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." Then she added, almost as an afterthought, "You try and remember, but it never works." That second sentence is probably the most relatable thing a supermodel has ever said in an interview, and it disappeared almost immediately. The first one went everywhere.

Wearing makeup to the gym is a completely personal decision, and for many people it genuinely reduces self-consciousness in a space that can already feel exposing. The product choice is not in question here; what is worth examining is what the category implies, and how it is sold.

Thinness has always been sold. For most of the last century, the vehicle was advertising — billboards, fashion campaigns, magazine covers, the consistent visual message that a slim body is a better body. What has changed is the delivery mechanism. It is now, increasingly, a prescription.

A wedding dress gets ordered five to nine months before anyone wears it, and it's standard practice in bridal shops to order a size down as "motivation". Nobody hides this: sales assistants suggest it, wedding forums recommend it, and the dress arrives built to be taken in, not let out, because the whole system assumes the bride's body will have shrunk to fit the size on the label by the time she walks in for her first fitting.

Belly Bandit's postpartum line includes a product called the Mother Tucker, a compression legging the brand credits with "Muffinology" technology for a "sleek, smooth silhouette." The same collection page describes the brand's belly wraps as doctor-recommended and built to support diastasis recti and C-section recovery. Both claims sit in the same paragraph, sometimes the same sentence, but they are not the same claim.

Every brand uses its own measurements, fit model, and grading system, which means the same person can walk into three different shops and leave with three different sizes. The reasonable conclusion is that the fashion sizing system is a mess. The conclusion many people reach instead is that something is wrong with their body.

“Does this look flattering?” It’s one of the most common questions in fashion, yet we rarely stop to consider what the word actually means. On the surface, “flattering” sounds positive. But in fashion, it often serves as shorthand for making the body appear closer to an ideal: slimmer, taller, smaller, more toned, or more proportioned.

Looksmaxxing started in "manosphere" online communities in the mid-2010s and went mainstream in the 2020s. The premise is straightforward: systematically optimise your physical appearance to maximise social desirability.

Skin-lightening products sit inside a huge, global skincare economy, and they keep selling for a reason that has very little to do with "radiance." The skin-lightening market is estimated at $10.84 billion in 2026, growing to $18.83 billion by 2034. Skincare overall may be a far bigger market, but a $10bn-plus category is not a side quest.

In the early 2000s, America’s Next Top Model sold itself as an inside look at “the industry”. What it really shipped, week after week, was a rulebook about bodies, delivered with better lighting and a judging panel. The rule wasn’t subtle. Thinness wasn’t a background detail. It was treated like the entry requirement, the performance metric, and the punchline, all at once.