Why Kate Moss Being The Face Of Kim Kardashian’s 'Body Positive' SKIMS Doesn’t Make Any Sense
How the tables have turned.
Getty Images Kate Moss is the newest face of Kim Kardashian’s Skims, appearing in a campaign for brand that describes itself as "solutions oriented brand creating the next generation of underwear, loungewear and shapewear" that shows the model’s perfectly chiseled abs cinched into Kardashian's shapewear.
Ten years ago, no one would have predicted that the often-criticized reality TV show star would now be hiring one of the fashion industry’s most legendary supermodels to star in ads for high fashion shapewear.
But even though Kardashian has earned herself plenty of credibility in the fashion industry over the past decade, this particular collaboration with Moss still doesn’t quite make sense.
What’s wrong with Kate Moss being named the face of Skims?
Kardashian has been praised for Skims’ inclusivity and diversity since the earliest days of the brand’s creation.
Skims’ products range in sizes from XXS to 4X, up to 5X in Shapewear and feature 28 bra cup sizes. Spanx, by comparison, only goes up to 3X.
While most shapewear is mainly available in nude and black, Kardashian’s brand features a range of shades so Skims can be a second skin for women of all skin tones.
In marketing campaigns, Skims models come in all shapes and sizes, tucking stomach rolls and cellulite into high-waisted underwear and tight-fitting pants.
The brand has single-handedly exposed some of the secrets behind seemingly flawless red carpet looks with everyone from Ashely Graham to Martha Stewart admitting to wearing Skims.
So it seems surprising that Kardashian’s go-to choice to represent Skims would be Kate Moss, who represents the unrealistic body type people are trying to attain when they force themselves into a pair of Skims underwear.
Kate Moss has a problematic past in the body diversity movement.
“Kate is THE fashion icon; she has a timeless influence that continues to define whole generations of culture and style,” says Kardashian.
She’s not wrong. The problem is the style Moss is defining.
In 2009, Moss’s infamous “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” motto gave a dangerous mantra to the pro-ana movement, an online movement promoting and encouraging eating disorders.
Moss as the face of Skims risks moving the brand away from being a way to feel your best in your body and towards becoming another vehicle for pressuring women to feel beholden to unattainable body standards.
Kim Kardashian and Kate Moss both promote unattainable beauty standards.
As Moss’s size zero supermodel figure drifted out of style in the 2010s, Kardashian ushered in a new beauty standard — another layer of irony in their new collaboration.
In 2010, the Kardashian’s were breaking viewing records on TV and the only thing more omnipresent than the famous family was the rise of a new, curvier “ideal” body type.
In a way, Kardashian put Moss’s body type out of style.
And while the Kardashian effect could have been an opportunity to promote diversity and a celebration of all body types, the new look they represented became just as unattainable as the last.
Skims’ motto is “Solutions For Every Body,” so this is not to say that Kardashian, Moss or women who look like them don’t deserve to have shapewear.
However, in a world where the pendulum of ideal bodies shifts from the Moss extreme to the Kardashian side, the collaboration distances Skims from its original message of diversity and inclusivity.
Psychologist and body image expert Lesley Goth, PsyD, tells us acceptance can be achieved through more diverse representation.
“It will take time to undo all the damage that has been done over the years, but the exposure to different body shapes and sizes can only be positive!
The reality is we all come in different shapes and sizes and can still be beautiful and confident inside and out.”
Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. Catch her covering all things social justice, news, and entertainment. Keep up with her Twitter for more.