Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
Style > Fashion

Slavic Dolls X Brazilian Bombshells: why does the fashion industry love to put women against each other?

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Casper Libero chapter.

The modeling  world seems glamorous and glorious with all the clothes and the fame. But unfortunately, it is not really what it looks like. Considered one of the most toxic industries, it is common to see cases of rivalry, and one of the most famous is the russian models against the brazilian ones,  who have had this tension since the 90’s. 

What are Slavic Dolls?

Slavic Dolls were 2000’s models that became popular because of their fragile, tall and skinny looks, in shades of blue and gray, plus their history: pretty and poor girls who grew up modeling, that got the attention of the fashion industry. Names like Natalia Vodianova, Eugenia Volodina, Tanya Dziahileva and Vlada Roslyakova got famous. 

A  trend started recently on TikTok with a makeup challenge and all that look era is now a winter trend, making a huge success on the app.

🌍 Related: The Cultural Appropiation Embedded in TikTok Sounds

What are Brazilian Bombshells?

They were also millennial supermodels, but with a different aesthetic. Known for their skinny body but with curves they got famous for being Victoria’s Secret Angels and for other iconic shows like the 1998 Alexander McQueen show. The most important names are: Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima, Fernanda Tavares, Isabeli Fontana and Alessandra Ambrósio.

The term “Brazilian bombshell” is a reference to Carmen Miranda, a brazilian singer that got very famous in the US during the 40’s because of her looks, such as her popular fruit hat. 

Slavic Dolls VS Brazilian Bombshells

So what happened? Why were they rivals? Back at the end of the 90’s and beginning of the 00’s there were those two model’s trends competing in the fashion industry. As it’s known it is a really toxic industry and has a hard competition, but what’s really gotten to them was the fact that everyone was always speculating something: if they were friends or if they hate each other and tons of gossip were made up about them, especially for gossip magazines which used those gossips and rivalries as content. 

Nowadays on TikTok or Instagram, since the trend came back, we always watch videos comparing those styles and putting them against each other even in an unconscious way. 

@slavic_dolls

#vladaroslyakova for #vercase men’s wear 2007. Im about to hit 1000 followers and i just wanted to say thankyou to everyone who followed and showed their support. Im having so much fun making this content, and im glad other people are enjoying it whit me 🤍

♬ TREINAMENTO DE FORÇA – TRXVELER

Why does the fashion industry love to put women against each other? 

As we have already seen, the fashion industry is really toxic, models having to compete all the time, having to lose weightmore and more, lots of sexual abuse cases and women being putting against each other all the time, but why?

Well that sells. And if we are consuming it, the industry will continue to produce it, that’s how the “law of supply and demand” works. I mean, not only in the fashion world but in other areas too, for example, how many romances didn’t we have with feminine rivalit? How many novels? Movies? And in real life we see that all the time. 

The fact is that the fashion industry loves to put women against each other because we love to consume this kind of content and they know it. Therefore, we must stop consuming it if we want to change the way things were done until now.

———————–

The article above was edited by Duda Kabzas.
Liked this type of content? Check
Her Campus Cásper Líbero home page for more!

Beatriz Tomagnini

Casper Libero '27

Studying journalism at Cásper Líbero College. I aim to inspire girls who love communications and writing to follow their dreams.