Heroin and the Media

During the 1990s, the heroin chic trend briefly became popular in the fashion world. Stick-thin models in magazine spreads stared out dully at the reader with hollow, dark-rimmed eyes. A notorious ad campaign for a Calvin Klein fragrance featured emaciated models contorted into bizarre positions. The heroin chic look was widely criticized. The main concern with the popularization of heroin chic was how the trend glamorized the physical effects of heroin abuse.

Initially, the problem was with the models' appearance, not with actual alleged heroin use by models. It gradually became known, however, that a number of models had crossed over to heroin use. In 1997, twenty-year-old photographer Davide Sorrenti, one of the pioneers of the heroin chic look, was found dead of a heroin overdose. Public outcry and censure within the fashion industry ended the popularity of the heroin chic trend.