When you are watching someone you have been following for years, someone who has been open about their darkest struggles, and something about their appearance stops you mid-scroll, a certain kind of unease sets in. When Lily Collins entered Calvin Klein’s Fall showcase during New York Fashion Week in September 2025 wearing a sequined, feathered two-piece, many people experienced that. She had a striking appearance. In addition, she appeared dangerously thin to many onlookers.
Collins, 36, has never requested that people avoid the topic. In her 2017 memoir, she wrote with remarkable candor about her eating disorder, a years-long battle with bulimia and anorexia that started around the age of 16, when her father, Phil Collins, separated from her stepmother. That same year, she portrayed a hospitalized anorexic in Netflix’s To the Bone, a role she called extremely intimate. Recovery is not a destination, as she has stated numerous times. She described it as “an ongoing process” during February 2026’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Even with all of that background, many people were still uncomfortable when they saw the NYFW photos.
The conversation that surrounded Collins on the Calvin Klein runway wasn’t the type that typically results from a fashion moment involving a celebrity. It was more ambiguous and quieter. Social media posts ranged from simple worries to contentious discussions about whether or not it was ever appropriate to comment on a woman’s body. There’s a real tension there, and it’s better to sit with it than to ignore it. Collins has discussed her past in public on multiple occasions. However, she is an adult woman who has the right to make her own physical decisions. A comfortable middle ground between those two issues has never really been found in the discussion surrounding Lily Collins’ weight loss during the Season 5 filming.
The timing is what further complicates the picture. According to reports, Collins lost a substantial amount of weight—numbers as high as 20 pounds were circulating in entertainment media—partially due to her obligations to film the fifth season of Emily in Paris. Due to the untimely death of assistant director Diego Borella, which temporarily halted production, Season 5, which debuted on December 12, 2025, was already garnering attention before its release. When the show eventually debuted on Netflix, viewers were ready to see a change in the main actress. And a lot of them did.
Of course, it’s possible that Collins’s physical appearance is actually more detrimental than beneficial. She has never said that being in the public eye has helped her heal; on the contrary. She talked about pursuing an ideal of perfection that she ultimately had to give up completely in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar years ago. “As I grew older, I realized that perfection doesn’t exist,” she remarked, considering the hold the disorder had on her. Her concerns about her ability to conceive had also been heightened by the illness, which she candidly discussed before giving birth to her daughter Tove Jane. From her point of view, the renewed wave of concern may seem even stranger because of that personal resolution.
Even so, the topic keeps coming up and won’t go away just because it makes people uncomfortable. Emily in Paris’s fifth season rekindled discussions about the show’s aesthetics—its hyper-stylized Paris, the couture, and its almost unrelentingly photogenic protagonist—and whether or not those images have a responsibility. Emily Cooper is not supposed to appear to be having difficulties. She’s supposed to look amazing. Additionally, Lily Collins, who has made the decision to be open about her vulnerability, lives in a complex space between public figure and performer.
Actor Malcolm McDowell, her father-in-law, told PEOPLE that although the show isn’t exactly to his taste, Collins is someone he greatly admires. That’s a tiny, human detail, but it conveys a message: Collins’s loved ones clearly see her as a person doing the work of being herself in a highly public setting rather than as a symbol or a warning. None of us can truly know if that work involves health struggles that the public is unaware of.
What is still true is that Collins keeps showing up, speaking out during awareness weeks, and admitting that recovery from eating disorders doesn’t have a clear storyline. More important than any one picture taken during fashion week is that consistency. Even when the world continues to focus more on your appearance than your words, there is a subtle bravery in continuing to call it what it is.
FAQs
1. Who is Lily Collins?
She is the British-American actress who leads Netflix’s Emily in Paris.
2. What triggered public concern about Lily Collins’ appearance?
Fans noticed her visibly changed frame at New York Fashion Week in September 2025.
3. Has Lily Collins spoken about eating disorders before?
Yes — she detailed her struggles openly in her 2017 memoir Unfiltered.
4. When did Emily in Paris Season 5 premiere?
It premiered on Netflix on December 12, 2025.
5. Is Lily Collins in recovery from an eating disorder?
She has described recovery as “an ongoing process” as recently as February 2026.
6. Does Lily Collins have children?
Yes — she and her husband, Charlie McDowell, have a daughter named Tove Jane.
