The cultural canon of beauty is constantly shifting. Still, few trends have reverberated across so many sectors—fashion, wellness, luxury, fitness, and even travel—as dramatically as the rise of the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) aesthetic. While the surgical procedure itself has stirred debate and dominated headlines, the ripple effect on consumer behavior, especially among younger, diverse women, is where brands should be paying closer attention.
The BBL isn’t just a body type; it’s an aspiration, a filter, a shopping behavior, and a signal of socio-economic power. Whether praised, parodied, or problematized, its presence in the culture is undeniable. In other words, the BBL has become its own vibe.
The numbers tell an interesting story of both demand and dissonance. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, buttock augmentation procedures increased by 37% from 2020 to 2021, and interest has remained high despite the growing discourse around body positivity. On TikTok, the hashtag #BBLEffect has garnered over 2.3 billion views, with countless users documenting their pre- and post-op transformations, mock tutorials, or humorous “BBL walks.” The trend has mutated into both an aesthetic and a meme—one that speaks volumes about race, wealth, desirability, and the digitally (re)constructed body.
But the BBL effect extends far beyond operating rooms and Instagram grids. What’s unfolding is a broader shift in how beauty ideals drive consumerism, especially among Gen Z and millennial women of color. These demographics aren’t just consuming beauty—they’re reconstructing it, often quite literally. And as the aspirational body becomes more surgically accessible, it’s reshaping not only what we buy but why we buy it.
Take fashion, for instance. The exaggerated hourglass figure made iconic by Kim Kardashian and Cardi B has vibrated down the fast fashion chain. Brands like Fashion Nova and PrettyLittleThing, whose hyper-stretchy, bodycon silhouettes cater explicitly to curvier figures, have become household names among multicultural Gen Z shoppers. Fashion Nova’s influencer-heavy model and shameless embrace of the BBL silhouette helped the company hit over $400 million in annual revenue, propelled largely by Black and Latina women driving style trends online.
Retailers aren’t just catering to these figures—they’re outright engineering for them. There’s a reason jeans now offer “booty-lifting” seams or come pre-curved to accommodate hip-to-waist ratios. From Fabletics to Good American, brands are increasingly building sizing and product design for the “enhanced” body, whether naturally curvy or surgically achieved. The aesthetic is no longer niche; it’s now built into the retail supply chain.
It doesn’t stop at clothes. Wellness brands have been equally responsive to the growing obsession with glutes. Resistance bands, glute-targeted workouts, and protein powders promising “booty gains” dominate platforms like Instagram and YouTube. According to a Statista survey, strength training has surged in popularity among women aged 18–34, with glute-focused programs ranking among the most-searched fitness plans. For many, building a BBL-adjacent body without surgery is not just a goal but a full-fledged lifestyle.
Luxury brands are not immune, either. High-end fashion has long been slow to adapt to body diversity, but even here, the BBL effect has made inroads. Labels like SKIMS have blurred the line between shapewear and luxury, offering inclusive sizing and marketing campaigns that highlight fuller figures. In the beauty space, luxury brands are launching products that mimic the contouring effects of fillers and surgery. Charlotte Tilbury’s “Pillow Talk” line and Fenty Beauty’s body luminizers are marketed explicitly to sculpt, enhance, and blur.
There’s also a financial profile to consider. Black and Latina women overindex on beauty spending compared to their white peers. According to a McKinsey report, Black consumers in the U.S. spend about $6.6 billion annually on beauty products—11.1% of the total market—despite accounting for only 12.4% of the population. Much of this spending is influenced by culturally specific beauty standards and trends, including body shape. To ignore how the BBL effect factors into these decisions is to ignore what’s driving a significant portion of the market.
Still, for all its influence, the BBL effect has not been without controversy or backlash. Critics argue that it reinforces Eurocentric beauty standards wrapped in a racially ambiguous package—slim waist, wide hips, but light skin and delicate features. It also raises concerns about bodily autonomy, medical ethics, and the perpetuation of unattainable ideals. The death rate for BBL procedures, once among the highest in cosmetic surgery, has led to calls for greater regulation and education. Even so, the procedure continues to gain popularity, especially in global markets like Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and increasingly, South Africa and Nigeria.
Some say we’re now in a “post-BBL” era, where the Kardashian clan themselves have seemingly slimmed down and TikTok trends like “heroin chic” and #SkinnyTok are making a troubling resurgence, most likely as a result of the availability of weight loss medications such as Ozempic. But this assumes a limited narrative that doesn’t reflect how beauty ideals operate in culture. For many women of color, the BBL look isn’t a trend—it’s a reclaiming. It’s about amplifying attributes that were once marginalized or mocked and turning them into currency. It’s not about keeping up with the Kardashians; it’s about moving beyond them and being something they never were to begin with– not without surgical intervention, at least.
This is the point where brand relevance becomes crucial. For industries that rely heavily on cultural cachet—beauty, fashion, fitness, wellness, and now, even travel and tech—the BBL effect isn’t just an aesthetic trend. It signals which consumers are shaping the market and what forms of aspiration they’re investing in. Are your products cut for post-surgery bodies? Are your mannequins shaped to reflect real shoppers? Are your ad campaigns showing the full range of culturally specific beauty? If not, the culture will move on without you.
The travel industry, too, has felt the impact. “Surgery tourism” has become a booming industry, with thousands of women traveling to destinations such as Tijuana, Istanbul, or Medellín for affordable procedures. Recovery houses, BBL-friendly hotel beds, and concierge post-op services now cater to this niche but lucrative segment. According to Medical Tourism Magazine, the global medical tourism market is expected to reach $182 billion by the end of 2025. Much of this growth is driven by cosmetic surgery.
What we’re witnessing is not simply a trend but a major shift in how cultural capital is accrued and expressed. The body is the billboard, and for a growing segment of consumers, the BBL effect isn’t about vanity—it’s about visibility, control, and social power. It’s about reshaping not just the waistline, but the entire frame of how beauty and consumerism intersect.
Brands can either lean into this movement, turning it into parody, or they can tune in. The smart ones are already adjusting their fit models, rethinking their ad campaigns, and creating products that honor body diversity not just as a box to tick, but as a starting point for innovation. The rest? They’ll be left trying to catch up with an audience that’s already evolved.
