My Bush is Not Your Costume: SKIMS Faux Pubic Underwear is Setting Feminism Back

Less than 24 hours after its October 2025 drop, the SKIMS faux pubic hair underwear sold out. Featuring different hair patterns and colors—like Sienna Ginger Straight and Clay Black Curly—this line of underwear is designed to make women’s vaginas customizable, a fashion statement. You can be hairy or bare at the drop of your underwear!

Photo: Yahoo

The aesthetic appeal of women’s pubic hair, or, rather, the lack thereof, is nothing new. In Ancient Rome and Egypt, women removed their pubic hair with polished shells, bat blood, calf urine, donkey fat, bronze knives, pumice, and beeswax. They believed pubic hair was a symbol of the lower class. 

However, this perception flipped during the Middle Ages; hairless vaginas became associated with sex work, and the Catholic Church thus deemed any removal of pubic hair as sinful. This ideology continued in the 16th to 18th centuries during the rising popularity of syphilis, which could cause pubic hair to fall out. The bush was back in!

But only for a few centuries… When the French engineer Louis Réard introduced the bikini in 1946, women became encouraged to shave according to bikini lines. Then in the 1990s, the Brazilian Wax took over America, popularized by Janea Padilha’s New York Salon, “The J Sisters.” Waxing and shaving became the norm for sex, eventually evolving into dozens of different grooming styles, typically catered to men’s preferences. 

Photo: 99Designs

Throughout history, across the globe, women have been told what to do with their vaginas, pressured to appeal to the male gaze, whatever bush pattern is “in.” In the past decade, we have begun to see progress in movements like #FreetheBush for women to take control back over their vaginas, make choices for themselves. 

But despite Vogue claiming that “The Bush is Back in 2025—just ask Skims,” this line of underwear is anything but feminist. Rather than liberating women from beauty standards, it repackages them for profit. Women aren’t motivated to commit to a pubic grooming choice that feels authentic and comfortable to them, but are encouraged to perform whatever version of sexuality feels most marketable, most appealing to men in the moment. It’s not about empowerment. It’s about consumption and lining Kim Kardashian's billionaire pockets while calling it progress. 

XOXO, The Fashion Stock Market

Cover Photo: Daily Nexus

Editor: Felicity Field