One Size Doesn't Fit All

Have you ever felt the frustration of having to go out of your way to find any clothes that fit, because the fashion industry deemed your body type not worthy of attention? If so, you’re not alone. For years, the fashion industry has suppressed diversity. However, there is a shift towards acceptance, inclusivity and freedom. In the past couple of years, the inclusion of people defying stereotypes of what beauty and perfection look like has brought attention to the fashion industry’s inclusivity problem.

Just last summer, Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech Bior made history when she was chosen by the legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld to occupy one of the most coveted positions in fashion: the Chanel Bride. She closed the show wearing a gorgeous blue ensemble, becoming the second model of color ever to do so.

In 2015, during New York fashion week, FTL Moda, one of the major high-end fashion week production companies, had disabled models walk down the runway in collaboration with Fondazione Vertical, a research foundation for spinal cord injuries. Among them were people sitting in wheelchairs, walking with canes or missing a leg, all of them wearing various designers from all over the world.

Antonio Urzi, whose designs have been worn by Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, reportedly chose the person who would be sporting his creations for the FTL Moda show himself. His choice was a personal trainer and fitness model from England, Jack Eyers, who was the first amputated model to walk in a runway show. Following the show, Eyers shared, “I want to show that having a disability doesn’t need to hold you back.” Having disabled people walk down the runway isn’t only a way of showing that they can in fact model clothes, it sends the message that their disabilities don’t prevent them from being active members of society and that what makes them different shouldn’t be considered a flaw, but should be embraced.

Events like FTL Moda’s 2015 show may make headlines and start conversations around diversity, but they do not reflect the reality of the industry and the requirements that come with modeling.

For so long, models who didn’t fit a size 0 weren’t even considered by most fashion brands. Beauty was associated with thinness and symmetrically perfect features. A “crooked” nose or any other tiny imperfection could exclude models from having a job. In an industry where a small imperfection could cost you a job, it was hard to predict any form of inclusivity.

Like all movements for change, inclusivity in the fashion industry has faced its fair share of pushback. Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer at Victoria’s Secret who is responsible for casting, recently stated in an interview with Vogue, that he was against hiring transgender models for the company’s runway event “because the show is a fantasy.” He went on to add, “We attempted to do a television special for plus sizes in [2000]. No one had any interest in it. Still don’t.” Razek’s statement got so much negative feedback that Victoria’s Secret had to apologize on behalf of their CMO. People were quick to point out that the brand should be more considerate of its actual clients, who do not only constitute extremely thin women.

Fortunately, we have witnessed the development of brands becoming more inclusive of all body shapes over the last few years. Savage X Fenty, Rihanna’s underwear line, has been praised for making inclusivity an inherent part of its brand. The singer has made a point of challenging the idea of what it means to be sexy and beautiful. Speaking of her brand’s debut at the 2018 New York fashion week to Elle.com, “I wanted to include every woman. I wanted every woman on the stage with different energies, different races, body types, different stages in their womanhood, culture. I wanted women to feel celebrated.”

A conversation about body positivity is nearly impossible to be had without mentioning Ashley Graham, a plus-sized model whose work has been advocating for the body-positive movement. She has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle and Glamour and, most notably, was the first plus-sized model to have appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Speaking of her cover, Graham said she couldn’t believe she was on it until she had a printed copy in her hands, and for good reason. The magazine always portrayed unrealistic body types, images that have led women to develop mental health problems, self-confidence issues and eating disorders because they aren’t able to meet the unrealistic norms of what people with influence call thin.

Kate Moss once said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” That statement by a world-famous supermodel is a worrisome example of the extremely unhealthy standards that women are put up against. Change is long overdue, so fashion brands have begun detaching themselves from unachievable standards of beauty by showcasing more realistic body types.

For his Spring 2019 collection, Off-White designer, Virgil Abloh, whose brand has been deemed one of the most popular in the world, included a set of real athletes on the runway. With fuller, muscular forms, their body types were much different from the models walking with them. Still, they walked proudly side by side with supermodels and looked incredibly stylish. This was a groundbreaking moment in fashion because there has always been a stigma related to thinness and femininity in the industry. Muscularity didn’t fit the criteria of beauty because gender conformists have always conveyed the idea that muscular bodies should only be seen on men.

Beyond different body types, the fashion industry has also been conservative with other types of inclusivity. While there are millions of women around the world who wear the hijab, it took a century for Vogue to feature a model wearing a veil on the cover, but they finally did it in June 2018. On the cover, Halima Aden is wearing a hijab standing next to eight other models of all different sizes, shapes and colors. The cover was spread all over social media and met with an outpouring of praise and support. While the industry has been slow to change, Vogue’s October cover shows that mindsets are evolving.

Figures and brands who have made it a point to promote inclusivity, acceptance and selflove, no matter what size, color of skin, cultural background or disability you might have, are the ones who are enabling change to occur. Because of the visibility, these cultural shifts are getting, they are providing the younger generation with a whole new set of much more realistic and inclusive standards to look up to.

Perhaps the most promising events of all have been the Spring 2019 Fashion Weeks. The shows in each city felt more diverse than ever. From plus-sized women to people of color, they were some of the most inclusive shows ever. According to TheFashionSpot.com, that fashion month, held across New York, Milan, London and Paris involved 36.1 percent of models of color, as opposed to 17 percent in 2015. In addition to this, the season was noted as New York’s most racially diverse ever as nearly half of the models were women of color. The 2019 Spring Fashion Weeks also included a total of 54 plus-sized models. While this is an all-time high, it only constitutes 0.73 percent of the casting.

Women with fuller shapes or darker skin weren’t the only diversity highlight. Transgender models were much more present this season, scoring 91 spots on the runway, making it the season with the highest ratio of transgender models. As encouraging as it is, especially considering that as recently as 2016 only six transgender models walked the runway, these numbers are still meager compared to the number of shows a season. However, we can expect the number of transgender models to increase, thanks to several designers that have been using and promoting transgender models for a long time.

Marc Jacobs has made a habit out of including transgender models in his shows, even using Lana Wachowski, a transgender model and director, as a muse for his Spring/Summer 2016 campaign. Becca McCharen-Tran is the creator of Chromat, an inclusive luxury swimsuit brand and an advocate of the LGBTQ+ community. She has included not one, but five transgender girls for Chromat’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection. Shayne Oliver, the creative director and designer of Hood By Air, released a capsule collection for Helmut Lang and brought the brand back in the spotlight by using a diverse array of models, including New York nightlife fixture and trans model Sophia Lamar.

Brands from Calvin Klein to Christian Siriano, have championed diversity by including transgender models, plus-sized models, models of color, and disabled models on the catwalk. While these developments are promising, there is a long way to go until the fashion industry becomes completely inclusive of all shapes, sizes and cultures. However, the initiatives that people have taken over the years show that there is a will to make sustainable change, and hopefully by exposing the younger generations to more and more challenging ideas, we might be able to trigger the permanent shift we want to see happen.

By Karina Harb