“Heroin Chic” is Returning and Here’s Why:

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At the 2024 Berlin Fashion Week, gender-neutral clubwear brand Namilia dressed a model in a graphic tank top displaying the phrase “I Heart Ozempic.” While some saw the top as a witty gesture toward the height of the semaglutide era, others saw it as a major setback for the body positivity movement that began in the 1960s. The designer seemed to be embracing controversial graphics, as two other models were parading tops reading, “Too Pretty for Rehab” and “Fame Kills”.

Namilia’s collection titled, “Good Girl Gone Bad” was hoping to pay homage to the early 2000s grunge and fame-driven celebrities who shaped the fashion trends of that time. The collection received backlash since some say that the early 2000s state of mind should not be celebrated, as models would often make unhealthy choices to stay within the sample sizes of a runway, and were overall promoting drug use and eating disorders.

One of the most well-known models from the early 2000s is Kate Moss, who was famously known for using drugs such as cocaine and heroin to stay in shape for her runway shows until she was dropped by H&M for photos released of her cocaine use. In 2005, many models' drug use was brought to light, therefore causing some of the most famous models to be dropped by huge fashion brands. Post-2005, we began to see body positivity take off in fashion culture. Since the early 2000s, we’ve seen designers and models try to redefine what it is to work on the runway—by accepting all shapes and sizes, races and ethnicities, and becoming gender inclusive, more specifically advocating to see more transgender models walking the runways.

The “Heroin Chic” term gained popularity in the early 1990s and lasted up until the late 2000s—and was so much deeper than just belly rings and low-rise jeans. Heroin Chic was a personality, that came with certain characteristics that promoted a new subset of a toxic culture for women all over the world. Celebrity drug use was at an all-time high, and celebrity culture was as obsessive as it had ever been before. The key characteristics of Heroin Chic that fans were desiring to attain were pale skin, dark under-eye circles, emaciated features, and messy hair. This trend lost its traction as the body positivity movement gained momentum, but in 2017, a new weight loss drug, Ozempic, coined as the “quick fix drug”, was introduced and has seemed to completely erase everything society has worked toward over the last 20 years. So, is Ozempic the new heroin? And why is the early 2000s beauty standard to look sick and exhausted?

In the 1980s, during the AIDS epidemic, heroin became the cheapest and purest it has ever been, and snorting heroin became increasingly popular since injecting had become riskier (even though heroin in itself is already risky—but I digress). These changes caused heroin to enter a new market: the middle and upper class. Model Gia Carangi, who some may deem the “first supermodel” is notoriously known to have started the heroin chic trend, along with the popularity of films such as The Basketball Diaries, Pulp Fiction, and Permanent Midnight, which all had themes of normalizing and increasing drug use popularity. Another key factor in the Heroin Chic era was the increased popularity of grunge and alternative rock music, where the media was often reporting on musicians' heroin use.

So, what does this mean for the fashion industry?

Now more than ever, designers need to put their efforts into promoting inclusivity and overall body positivity in their runways. While the 2024 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show faced some backlash online, models Alex Consani and Valentina Sampaio became the first transgender models to ever walk a Victoria's Secret Fashion Show; paving the way for aspiring trans models. It is also important for content creators and major names in fashion to showcase “Heroin Chic” fashion in a way that isn’t unhealthy—as in ONLY sticking to the clothing itself, not the toxic culture of modeling in the early 2000s. Collectively, society must work to reach a point of not glamorizing drug-using celebrities, not losing the momentum of the body positivity movement, and holding fashion brands accountable for not being diverse and inclusive. Ozempic raises significant concerns about the long-term impacts on our well-being and body image. Instead of seeking shortcuts that may not align with our values or health, let’s embrace a holistic and natural approach to wellness that honors our natural beauty and individuality.