WARNING: This article discusses dieting, body size and thinness.
For the last few months Gen X and Millennials have watched in horror as the bizarre fashion of the 2000s has returned to popularity. But the style resurgence that caused the most concern was the return of low rise jeans.
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For many of us, low rise jeans don’t just represent poor fashion choices, they’re inherently entwined with another noughties trend that we hoped we had left behind: the size zero.
In the late 90s and 00s, thin willowy women were everywhere. They were often called ‘size zero’ as a reference to the smallest size in US women’s clothing sizes, which equates to an Australian size 4.
These were the women low rise jeans were made for, so seeing them come back into fashion has been a shock to the system.
Thankfully, we as a society are (a bit) better when it comes to body acceptance in 2022 and this time around you don’t need to be a size zero to wear low rise jeans.
Just look at plus-sized blogger Sara Chiwaya and the excellent shoot she did for Bustle.
“If you told me a couple of years ago that I’d one day be wearing low-rise jeans (in front of a camera, no less), I would have laughed. Because until two weeks ago, I was certain I’d fully opt out of this early aughts look,” she wrote for the website.
Sarah hit the nail on its head when reflecting on how we treated low rise jeans in the 00s, saying that “in hindsight, it feels obvious that the trend was more about body checking than clothes”.
“I grew up in the era when this cut was only for the thinnest of thin, and if you wore them with anything less than exposed hipbones and washboard abs, ridicule was sure to follow,” she said.
Delightfully, Sarah said the project was a healing process for her, and honestly looking at the final fit it should heal all of us from our fear of low rise jeans.
This isn’t to say things are all good out here. We are at the precipice of a descent back into the size zero trend, in fact we might already be tumbling down that slippery slope.
To be clear, ‘skinny’ was never out of fashion. Even the ‘plus-sized’ models on most runways could fit into straight sizes.
But we have made moves to be accepting of more diverse bodies and trends such as the BBL pushed curvy bodies into the spotlight.
However, with rumours that Kim Kardashian has reduced her BBL, it’s become increasingly clear that the trend setters are aiming for a thin appearance, and we’re sure to follow where they lead.
It’s been said before that body acceptance is an act of rebellion and perhaps that’s true now more than ever.
It’s hard to say exactly why the size zero trend has returned so quickly but one very likely theory is that body acceptance isn’t profitable. There are thousands of brands out there that want to sell you diet tips, exercise regimes, cosmetic surgery, the list goes on.
Melbourne based fashion writer Aleska Servian summed it up perfectly when she explained the return to size zero on TikTok.
“Body standards thrive in exclusivity [so] body ideals tend to change when these trends become ‘attainable’,” she said.
“As we learned more about the BBL and it became attainable to the average person, the curvy body ideal [dropped] off and we are shifting to the next profitable body ideal.”
So, the way to combat this is to wear the low rise jeans, whatever your size. All the lessons we’ve been taught about wearing what makes us comfortable haven’t changed because fashion has.
If body acceptance is an act of rebellion, then let’s all be rebels.
WATCH BELOW: Why fashion is returning to size 0
If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, help is always available. Call The Butterfly Foundation’s national helpline on 1800 33 4673 or visit their website.
