Copenhagen Fashion Week Follows the Sydney Sweeney Campaign: Diversity on the Decline

During Copenhagen Fashion Week, the streets of the Danish capital are filled every year with fashion enthusiasts from around the world, all looking for inspiration from the leading Nordic brands. But according to reports from DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), there has been a marked shift on this year’s runway: the once highly visible curvier models are noticeably fewer, and traditional slender silhouettes have reclaimed center stage.

This trend is not unique to Copenhagen. Recently, an advertising campaign featuring American actress Sydney Sweeney was widely criticized for lacking diversity and allegedly glorifying traditional beauty standards.

Despite criticism, the brand American Eagle maintained that their campaign was simply an innocent jeans advertisement. However, the debate highlights how the fashion world is currently under pressure to balance commercial interests with growing demands for greater diversity.

DR’s analysis of Copenhagen Fashion Week clearly indicates that the boost in diversity seen in the industry just a few years ago is now losing ground. Whereas previous fashion weeks showcased a greater number of plus-size models, today there are far fewer models representing a range of body types. The trend points back toward a narrower definition of beauty ideals.

Although the fashion industry as a whole has become healthier in some respects, the numbers reveal that mainstream images are still overwhelmingly dominated by slimmer body ideals.

This raises the question of whether the prior emphasis on diversity was genuinely value-driven or simply motivated by marketing considerations.

Vogue Business published figures showing that last year, only five percent of models at the fashion weeks in Paris, London, Milan, and New York were above a European size 36 (US size 4/6).

This suggests that the industry is still struggling to embrace real diversity, and that there is a growing reluctance to take risks when it comes to representing different body types on the runway.

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