Why is THIN BACK IN?

Despite our best efforts, thin is back. Is it the return of body-conscious early noughties fashion? The rise of drugs like Ozempic? Or has our obsession with being thin never really gone away?

-  LIESL ROBERTSON

If you were a human woman alive in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you'll know that body-shaming was rife at the time. But back then it barely registered. We embraced heroin-chic as 'thinspiration', laughed along with the fat-shaming jokes, and bought wholesale into the narrative. After all, 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.' Remember that little aspirational nugget from the lips of Ms Kate Moss herself? She has since walked back her controversial mantra, but at the time it cemented her status as the poster girl for the coveted waif look.

Hands up if you ever tried the Special K diet. If you blocked it out, here's the gist: In 2004, Kellogg's launched an ad campaign that promised to help you lose two jeans sizes in just two weeks. All you had to do was swap out two of your three daily meals for a small bowl of the brand's low-cal cereal. Easy-peasy. (Believe it or not, this fad 'diet' was an upgrade from 1984's waist-whittling brainwashing ploy: the so-called 'Special K pinch'. 'If you can pinch more than an inch, you may need to watch your weight," the ads admonished.)

And, as Kate Winslet will tell you, "This shit went on for years.' Even before landing her breakout role in 1997's Titanic, she was put down for her weight, with one drama teacher telling her she'd have to 'settle for the fat girl parts' if she was 'going to look like this'. Once Titanic came out -the highest-grossing film in history at the time - Kate came under intense scrutiny for her unfashionably curvy figure. Nicknamed 'Kate Weighs-a-Lot' in the press, the star, who'd been 20 at the time of filming, became the subject of a 'horrific' level of harassment; what she describes as 'borderline abusive' body-shaming. 'It's absolutely appalling. What kind of a person must they be to do something like that to a young actress who's just trying to figure it out?'