The closing scene of Robert Altman’s 1994 film Prêt-à-Porter is remembered as one of the most radical moments in the history of fashion films. Protesting attempts by interested parties to take over the brand she founded, designer Simone Lo stages a fashion show featuring models dressed as Eve, including German chanson singer Ute Lemper, who walked the runway in an advanced stage of pregnancy, proudly exposing her belly.
Three decades later, pregnant women are emerging as a growing aesthetic force on fashion runways and in brand campaigns. Over the years, pregnant models and celebrities have appeared in shows and advertisements, but they were almost always treated as a gimmick destined for gossip columns. At the same time, many celebrities choose to be photographed during pregnancy, usually for brands aimed at that audience, and sometimes as a personal keepsake from that period.
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Jasmine Tookes at the Victoria’s Secret show, 2025. "At nine months pregnant, I didn't expect to even get the call"
(Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)
Now, however, we are witnessing a spreading trend, with several recent examples. Last October, model Jasmine Tookes opened Victoria’s Secret’s annual lingerie show, a choice that read more as a social statement than a fashion one. For the brand’s Mother’s Day campaign, Victoria’s Secret chose model Elsa Hosk, who showed off her pregnant belly in sexy bubblegum pink lingerie.
"At nine months pregnant, I didn't expect to even get the call", Tookes wrote on Instagram. "But when I did, and Adam shared the story, the symbolism of Venus, the strength, the rebirth, the divine feminine energy woven through it, I knew it was exactly where I was meant to be. I truly didn't think this would be possible... but we did it & in heels!!!"
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Jasmine Tookes at the Victoria’s Secret show, 2025
(Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Victoria's Secret)
A pregnant model also opened Israeli designer Lihi Hod’s bridal show at New York Bridal Fashion Week last month. At Bananhot, the swimwear brand founded by Neta Alchamister and Noa Beny, Beny was photographed in swimsuits while heavily pregnant, proudly showing off a tanned baby bump.
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A pregnant Noa Beny with Neta Alchamister during the shoot for Bananhot’s summer 2026 collection
(Photo: Amit Moser)
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A pregnant model at Lihi Hod’s show during New York Bridal Fashion Week, 2026
(Photo: firstVIEW)
The most prominent and meaningful example came last week from Biarritz, where Matthieu Blazy staged his first cruise 2027 show for Chanel. In keeping with the fashion house’s emphasis on diversity, American-Norwegian model and musician Kaya Wilkins (Okay Kaya) walked the runway with a five-month pregnant belly peeking out from a black-and-white tweed suit.
In an interview with Vogue, Wilkins said she received the invitation to take part in the show five days earlier from casting director Anita Bitton, who in recent seasons has selected a diverse group of models for the brand, including models from different cultures and older women. “I was quite surprised, as I'm five months pregnant,” she said. "Matthieu and Anita were looking for someone pregnant, so I was quite lucky to have a little bump on me.”
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Okay Kaya Wilkins at Chanel’s cruise 2026-27 show
(Photo: Aurore Marechal/Getty Images)
The Chanel show, staged by one of today’s leading luxury houses, points to the continued push for diversity in fashion over the past decade and a half. But in the current moment, it can also be read as a counterreaction to the return of size zero to the runway. In recent seasons, an extremely thin beauty ideal, echoing the “heroin chic” look of the 1990s, has once again become highly visible, pushing out more diverse models.
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Noa Beny (right) with Neta Alchamister during the photo shoot for Bananhot’s summer 2026 collection
(Photo: Amit Moser)
The pregnant body, round, changing and life-giving, functions almost as the complete opposite of the gaunt ideal. Is this really a protest? Not explicitly. But visually, it challenges the current norm by putting forward a body that cannot easily be policed. Against the perceived sickness of the skeletal ideal, the pregnant body offers an image of vitality and health.
Still, there is an important caveat: Like any fashion trend, this one, too, can become an aesthetic controlled by the industry. When pregnancy becomes a “look,” it risks becoming an object of consumption, still subject to the same mechanisms of control and surveillance.