Not that it doesn't affect men (it always has). But the industry has historically treated it as someone else's issue to solve. That's changing. Quietly, and with very little fanfare, the men's runway has been pulling itself toward two completely unachievable extremes at once. And the commercial logic behind it is exactly as cynical as you'd expect. Today we're looking at what happens when the fashion industry decides that male insecurity is finally worth monetising.

Instagram announced that new AI-powered effects are now available in Stories, using the latest Meta AI capabilities to let users generate and apply custom visual effects directly in the app. It's Meta's most visible push yet to embed generative AI into everyday content creation. Funnily enough, it arrives in the same week Zuckerberg was telling staff internally that the agentic AI revolution hasn't quite materialised yet. Make it make sense, Mark.

In arguably the most interesting cultural move of the week, HotNewHipHop reports that J. Cole has announced The Fall-Off — a 144-page print magazine dedicated to the history and culture of hip-hop. It serves as a companion piece to his long-awaited album of the same name. In a media landscape drowning in AI-generated content and algorithmic noise, Cole is going fully analogue. A physical, printed, 144-page love letter to the culture. In 2026. Respect.

And finally, it was Emmy nominations day, and the record books took a beating. CBS News reports that HBO Max's The Pitt led all shows with 25 nominations. Meanwhile, Hacks set a new all-time record for a comedy series with 24 — topping last year's record of 23. Apple TV+ had its biggest nominations haul ever with 89. But HBO Max led all platforms with 122.

Mariska Hargitay will host the ceremony on September 14. She’ll be the first non-comedian to front the Emmys in nearly two decades. Law & Order's Olivia Benson is running the show now. Act accordingly.

And fair, it’s mostly disproportionate.

But as Vogue Business recently laid bare, men are no longer immune to these volatile shifts. The current menswear landscape is both ignoring the average paying customer while also weaponising a radical, highly online subculture to rewrite the rules of the male silhouette.

Let's look at the data behind this shift, which is, staggering, to say the least.

Across three years and seven consecutive seasons of sizing reports, the representation of plus-size bodies on the men’s runway has not only slowed down, but completely flatlined. In fact, it's stagnated at a microscopic 0.2% to 0.3%.

It's the aggressive divergence of the male physical ideal into two unachievable extremes.

On one side of the venue, you have emaciated, ultra-slim models getting visibly thinner. On the other side, fuelled by the explosive mainstreaming of the digital "looksmaxxing" movement, there’s been a surge in hyper-muscular, jacked models poured into second-skin separates and short shorts. All designed to showcase bulging quads and extreme vascularity.

But, allow me to look past the glamour of the runway and call this exactly what it is: the corporate commodification of male insecurity.

Really, it’s got nothing to do with health, and little to do with celebrating the reality of human form. It’s a commercial strategy designed to ensure that the modern male consumer remains in a perpetual state of physical inadequacy.

Ah, the playbook as old as time itself.

If you are satisfied with your reflection and your health baseline, you don't buy the hyper-specific lifestyle apparel. You don't subscribe to the optimisation apps. And you certainly don't look for medical shortcuts.

The runway has never been based on reality, let’s be honest. But pulling it away even further, fashion houses are setting an unattainable standard. One that is fundamentally unachievable for a normal, healthy individual through standard nutrition and traditional training.

The male body ideal now requires a pharmaceutical helping hand. That may mean leveraging GLP-1 agonists to hit extreme leanness. Or it may involve cycling through peptides and performance enhancers to hold unnatural muscle mass.

Because this is what happens when you allow the market to turn our literal human skeleton into a passing seasonal trend.

One year the corporate consensus tells men to be lean and angular; the next, the algorithm demands they look like an action figure forged in iron. We are treating the human physique with the same disposable, transactional logic we apply to fast fashion.

The only way to get off this god-forsaken ride is to recognise the commercial blueprint for what it is. That, and refusing to validate it with our attention or our wallets.

For brands, the contrarian opportunity here is massive. The market is rapidly hitting a point of profound exhaustion with manufactured dysmorphia.

These brands catering to extreme ideological body scripts on either end of the spectrum are not doing themselves or the world any favours. The businesses, however, that possess the supreme operational confidence to market to the healthy, functional middle (aka, the real, paying customers who want clothes that fit a human life, not a pharmaceutical cycle, hello?) are doing both.

Stop letting a handful of luxury designers and an interest-based algorithm dictate what your genetic baseline should look like.

Step away from the freaking the optimisation metrics. Turn away from the extreme runway circus. And remember that your body is a vessel for your life, not a temporary marketing asset for a fashion house.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The sound comes from a fan-animated Marvel short where The Thing bursts in on Spider-Man and Johnny Storm mid-laugh and absolutely loses it:

"Hey! I know y'all ain't in here dancing and sht!"*

Creators are filming themselves laughing and vibing along with the audio at the start, then freezing up in horror the moment The Thing comes crashing in, for any situation where someone or something killed the mood with spectacular timing.

Some of my favourite examples:

Film yourself reacting to the sound. Laugh along at the start, then visibly seize up when The Thing yells. Add whatever killed your vibe as your on-screen text.

A few ideas to get you started:

-Devin Pike, Copywriter

Hey Callum!

First of all, it's absolutely possible to get into the industry without a degree in marketing. With all the free resources out there, you can take it upon yourself to learn from books, podcasts, YouTube, etc. As far as getting experience, if I were you, I would immerse myself in the industry as much as possible. Go to in-person marketing events. Follow and connect with marketers on LinkedIn. Book coffee chats with anyone who will give you 30 minutes of their time. Not only is this the best way to learn, but it may even lead to an opportunity to intern or get some actual work experience.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.