Plus-Size Representation This Fashion Month Was Pretty Good. It's Still Not Enough.
I would really love to stop having this conversation!!!
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Another fashion month come and gone, another time I have to step up on my lil’ soapbox and bitch about the body representation we saw.
I think we’re at the point where the fashion industry could never go fully back to the way things were in, say, the mid-aughts; the conversation around size inclusivity is too loud, and too many gains have been made for plus-size models to find themselves completely shut out of high fashion again. (famous last words!!! you’re screaming at me. I know.) But god knows there are plenty of people who would love to try!
It’s hard, if not downright impossible, to not interpret brands’ disinterest in size expansion as good old fashioned fatphobia. I’m talking about big labels who have the resources to do it even in the smallest, most bullshit symbolic way and still won’t. I know the conversations that go on behind closed doors, even still in 2023, and I know that these calls to action get eye rolls at best.
But, what can I say, I’m a dreamer. Maybe if I’m annoying enough about this, things will change. So here is my plus-size representation report card for the fashion industry; it is by no means comprehensive, but I believe it’s a good summary of where things are at.
I’m going to try to do this in a compliment sandwich, because I’m told that’s an effective way to communicate feedback. So, some of my high points from the month: Erdem, as always, was genuinely lovely and I appreciate the ongoing efforts at inclusivity. This is a brand that walks the walk, offering clothes up to UK size 22, roughly a US 18—far from ideal, but downright revolutionary at the luxury level.
The same goes for Dolce & Gabbana, which, for all its historical faults, also extended up to around a US 18 (Italian 54) in its ready-to-wear. I appreciated that they put Ashley Graham on the runway in the same lingerie-inspired style that the straight size models were in instead of trying to hide her in, I don’t know, a plain black coat. (Fat women can be sexy?! SHOCKING, but it’s true, news at 11.) The brand also sponsored small designer Karoline Vitto’s runway, which was almost exclusively plus-sized. I know some won’t like me offering Dolce & Gabbana even a whisper of praise, but I genuinely believe this is an important step for a brand of their size. Whether you ever forgive them or not is up to you!
At Chanel, Virginie Viard continues to include plus models in her runways, and I’m pleased to see her branching out beyond just Jill Kortleve. (This is nothing against Kortleve—I think she’s fantastic—but she is precisely the body type that when you show her to non-fashion people and you say, “Yea, she’s a plus-size model,” they just stare at you as though you’ve lost the plot. That is to say: I frankly think models like Jill should be the norm.)
And Sarah Burton cast plus models in her final show for McQueen, in looks which genuinely make me emotional. It’s hard to even explain how I felt when I attended the Alexander McQueen Fall 2020 show and saw plus models on the runway; it seemed like such a big step. (February 2020 Tyler was naive in a lot of ways, I think.)
Now for the yucky part of the compliment sandwich: Some of the designers trying to do plus size are doing it very poorly. First of all, I don’t really care how many times you hire Precious Lee to walk your runways if you’re not making plus sizes available accordingly—and I don’t mean a t-shirt or some bullshit knitwear. I would rather designers not put plus bodies on the runway at all if they’re not simultaneously hiring people for their ateliers who have the capability to pattern and cut clothing properly for plus sizes.
Like, this outfit that Lee wore on the Versace Spring 2024 runway makes me absolutely batty. It’s great that they put her in a sheer set, too, but the skirt doesn’t sit right, and the shirt gapes at the buttons. When clothes are ill-fitting on a straight-size model, the public assumes the designer isn’t capable of making clothes; plus-size models aren’t afforded the same assumption. (This is true in life, for that matter, but that’s a topic for another day.) Then it’s so easy to be like, well, plus-size models aren’t a fit for our brand/for high fashion/whatever, and then that’s it, we don’t have to try anymore. It’s my strongly-held personal opinion that if you can’t design clothes that look good on a variety of body types, including larger ones, you aren’t a designer, you’re a sketcher.
I’ll take ill-fitting swings over boring inclusion, though. Michael Kors did all these kicky lace minidresses and coral pinks paired with camel for Spring 2024, and he put Ashley Graham and Paloma Elsesser in…black? I know the collection had plenty of black in it, but when you put both of the plus-size models in it, I have to assume you think it’s “flattering” or that it hides “flaws” or whatever. Give them white lace miniskirts, you cowards!!!!!
Don’t even get me started on the brands that have backslid in representation since 2020. New York felt especially conspicuous this season, but there are big labels in Europe I am deeply sad about. The first is Fendi, which, under Silvia Venturini Fendi’s brief reign, showed some really beautiful collections on a broader range of bodies. Then Kim Jones took over, and I’m frankly not sure he’s aware that bodies bigger than Kate Moss’s circa 1995 even exist. While things weren’t perfect at Gucci under Alessandro Michele, it seemed like he was starting to at least give plus-sizes ago from time to time; Sabato De Sarno didn’t even bother to try for his debut collection.
I think a huge part of the problem is that the tastemakers in fashion—the ones who are setting the pace for what everyone else is doing—don’t seem to care about the problem at all. I’m thinking about New York darling Peter Do, Matthieu Blazy’s Bottega Veneta, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada at Prada and Miu Miu. Where they go, fashion tends to follow, and I almost have to respect the way they have continued to flat-out refuse to cast even one slightly curvy model. Brands like this annoy me, because they’ll make custom clothes for plus-size celebrities or private clients, or for a supermodel to wear on the cover of a magazine, but god forbid any non-approved fat women get through the door.
And, you know, obligatory quarterly reminder that, so long as she refuses to cast plus-size models, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s so-called feminism at Dior will ring hollow for me.
Anyway, I promised a compliment sandwich, so: I will confess that after New York, I was a little nervous the backslide was going to be pretty drastic, so I’m pleased to see more international brands getting involved in the conversation. And while I wish fashion would let there be more than, like, three successful plus-size models at the same time—I love Paloma, Precious, and Ashley, but I promise agencies have deeper rosters—I’ll always be glad to see these girls booked and busy.
I am sure everyone is tired of hearing me talk about this. Frankly, I’m tired of talking about this! And of course, it goes without saying that this is my personal albatross because I can’t fit into probably like 90% of the clothes I’d like to wear. But this issue is important, and I need more people to care about it than the ones who are begging for scraps of representation in the industry.
I want it to be as normal and expected to see a handful of plus-size bodies on runways as it is straight-sized ones. I know it’s possible, and despite myself, I believe in this industry. See y’all in February.
Great writing, great journalism