Fashion – and by extension, clothing – is created for skinny people.
Our world is built on the assumption that everyone is a certain size (that size being small) and that while some variety is allowable, the range of “acceptable” is even smaller than the jeans they expect us to fit into. Social media influencers flood their pages with images of them in a variety of outfits made by a variety of fashion sponsors, but the question posed here is simple: is the “Look” actually cute, or do we just view smaller bodies as more pleasing?
A recent TikTok trend involves users taking photos of fashion influencers and celebrities and styling themselves in similar outfits to try to answer this question. One note on this: While I have purposefully chosen a video of someone who is not skinny doing this challenge, I also found a lot of videos made by users who could be argued are skinny themselves, just not as skinny as an 18-year-old runway model.
The commonly-reached conclusion most creators have come to is two-fold. First, that the outfits themselves are often excruciatingly basic and boring. They lack color, interesting silhouettes and texture. The majority of these outfits are a pair of jeans or athletic pants and a t-shirt or sweatshirt – the sort of outfit that is typically classified as athleisure or “going to the grocery store.” The people wearing them look good, certainly, but they are not breaking new ground in the realm of fashion and won’t be found on the runways of New York fashion week. The commentary on these photos typically ignores the lack of originality, or even fails to notice it; the comments sections are flooded with people praising them for their beauty and their outfits.
Second, these outfits only look good because the person wearing them is skinny. When placed on a larger body they often look absurd. It’s worth noting that the absurdity is created largely because the challenger is not modifying the outfit or silhouette to more aesthetically suit their body type, as one would typically do when actually buying clothes or creating outfits for themselves; they are purposefully taking the outfit in its original form and simply scaling it up, precisely like modern-day jeans manufacturers. This conclusion only serves to enhance the first one: if the outfit itself is boring or even straight-up bad, why are we applauding anyone for wearing it?
The answer I, and many TikTok users, have come to is that skinny bodies are put on a pedestal of beauty. They are seen as the original, the default, and the gold-standard. They are afforded privilege that larger bodies are denied. They are given beauty labels that are unattainable for those around them, and in some cases like this, may also be completely inaccurate. Even worse, skinny bodies are also seen as the standard in medicine, which can leave massive gaps and inadequate care for those in larger bodies.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, and I’m not here to reach any conclusions for you on whether or not you think these influencers and their outfits are pretty, but I would have you start to ask yourself this question every time you see yet another model wearing the same thing your dad wears to mow the lawn: Is it a fit, or are they just skinny?
Unruly Bodies 
I loved this post! I’ve seen these TikRok pop up on my fyp as well and consistently I come to the same conclusion that the outfits shown lack pazazz. What is interesting to think about is that because as you said smaller bodies are the gold standard, fashion brands cater to smaller bodies. You see this, especially when walking through any plus-size section. This being inherently even more problematic as more and more people start shopping fast fashion (Shein) to get cute clothes. As the narrative is pushed more and more, fatphobia reigns on all fronts. Especially as it starts to affect eating habits and the ways we perceive bodies when they eat.
I have seen several videos talking about this phenomenon, and they always raise a question for me. I’m not sure how well I can articulate this idea but I’ll try my best. My question is: what makes those outfits look any more “ridiculous” or unflattering on a fat person than they do on a skinny person? I understand that in some photos, the outfits are so overly simple that the “stylish” look relies only upon the fact that they have a skinny and conventionally attractive body. But with other outfits that aren’t so obviously not-fashion, like in the video you included, I don’t think there’s anything inherently more absurd about the (larger) creator wearing it than the skinny person wearing it. If we are saying that a fat person inherently looks more ridiculous in clothing that a skinny person looks attractive in, aren’t we then evaluating the quality of their appearance by fatphobic standards? What makes it absurd? What would look less absurd on her? I’m interested in unpacking this debate. If we were somehow able to collectively abandon the idea that being skinny is attractive – and therefore, that bodies are attractive regardless of their size – I don’t think any fashion would necessarily look “better” or more stylish on one body type or another.
I have also seen these videos on my fyp, and I love them! I think it’s sparked a very interesting conversation about what makes something fashionable and what makes someone look “good.” I do agree with averagethingsenjoyer though. I think this trend walks a line between a useful critique how we decide what is fashion and shaming certain body types for wearing certain clothing styles. Personally, my favorite version of these videos is when the outfit is a fit. I’ve seen multiple videos of plus-sized influencers restyling the fit so that it is comfortable on their body, while maintaining the outfit. I think are great, because they show how clothing can be comfortable and cute for any body type. The issue is not with the person’s body, and its not always with the fit itself; the issue is that clothing brands and influencers only make clothing and content for one body.