The evolution of 'Heroin Chic' and our bodies as trends

As someone born in two thousand and five, I have grown to have a great appreciation from the astronomically influential and timeless decade of the nineteen nineties. After all it was the birthplace for some of the most iconic, everlasting, moments in pop culture, from New Orders ‘Blue Monday’ to the fall off the Soviet Union. However, unlike the astronomically exceptional music scene, there’s certain parts of this decade that should be put to rest. Forever. And one of these things, is the term ‘heroin chic’ and the complete romanisation and idealising of the emaciated, thin body.

The problematic term ‘heroin chic’ was born in the early nineties and referred to features associated with drug use: dark circles, pale skin, emaciated thin body and androgyny. This look was initially popularised by nineties ‘its girl’ Gia Carangi, a famous runway model. The rise of heroin chic was soon a popularise category in fashion and beauty as models like Kate moss took over the fashion scene with these features. And with this take-over of new bodily standards and ironically, beauty and health ideals, came the immense rise of eating disorders and years’ worth of damaged body issues which would find its self-nestling into modern day culture.

This trend followed its way all through the bustling nineties into the early two thousand but would lose its popularity once the new ideal body shape came into fashion with the rise of popularity of the curvy, voluptuous body which was characterised by celebrities like the Kardashians, specifically Kim Kardashian. Soon the new ideals where to have large hips, and breasts while keeping a thin waist and toned stomach, something unachievable to most people. What is easily identifiable here is the theme of women’s bodies as trends, a very dangerous and tiring concept. The thing with idealising one type of body, like heroin chic, is that the next moment the media will be telling women to change their diets, go to the gym, even go through very dangerous procedures (the infamous Brazilian butt lift, again popularised by the Kardashian).This is the thing about beauty and body standards, they are always changing, you may have one certain look, but the next moment your body shape will be out and be replaced by another body shape. And this is not just a modern thing, the role of women’s body’s as fashion and status symbols has been forced upon women from the beginning of time. For example, the ancient geeks glorified a larger, softer body shape with features like round hips and larger breasts. To them this was beautiful and viewed a women’s larger body shape as desirable for it was symbolic of fertility, health and even Venus, Goddess of love, had this body shape which was so worshiped. And of course, as human civilisation grew and modernised the popularity of different female forms would continue on. It’s important to remember that when it comes to trends placed upon how our bodies look, history repeats itself, and in this case history comes in the form of low rise jeans, the removal of BBL’s and the new ‘it girls’ and idols like Bella Hadid, Lily rose Depp, Kendall Jenner and Lila Moss.

The rise of Y2k, and 90s fashion trends have also certainly had a role in transforming the new body standards in the media, reverting it back to ‘heroin chic’. A recent New York times article even acknowledged the rapid change in ‘body trends’, claiming that “heroin chic is in”. This article has sparked a lot of controversy, and for good reason; just because a few celebrities lose weight and fashion trends like low rise jeans are in, suddenly all women and girls are expected to change their body’s? Why must it be that women have to change, morph into a smaller body, just to fit in to a new trend that will indefinitely change in a matter of years or even months. Why is it that to wear a certain piece of clothing, or appreciate clothing from other decades, we have to have the ‘right’ type of body.

In many ways, we live in a society where people are very accepting of all different female body types, and there are a number of body positive advocates and people who discourage body shaming in order to avoid life altering, horrific illnesses like eating disorders. However, we also evidently live in a society where there are still so many expectations, so many women that other women feel pressured to look like, to emulate in any way possible, even if that means starving ourselves. There’s even been a rise in pro-anorexia feed on places like tik tok where eating very small amounts of food, being mentally ill, and having the ‘heroin chic’ look is romanticised and turned into an aesthetic. The fact that this type of feed is even allowed on sites and social media platforms to be viewed by millions of influential young girls and boys, and even women and men is unbelievable. So in conclusion, we may never be able to revert this damaging cycle of trends pressured for us to apply to our bodies, but what we can do is keep in mind that our bodies are so much more than an aesthetic, or something to look visually pleasing to others, and even ourselves, they are certain not trends either. They are our own, individual vessels and life, and we have to take care of them, not abuse them.

Bodies are not trends.