New York Fashion Week kicks off on Friday, and after years of demand for more body inclusivity, the industry event still has a long way to go. Although many fashion brands have made an effort to offer plus-size clothing and models, the invited crowd doesn’t feel all-encompassing to many.
Blogger Chastity Garner She told HuffPost that she felt like an outsider from the start. When she was at Fashion Week in 2015, she weighed 360 pounds and couldn’t wear any clothes on the runways. “What was I really getting?” she asked. “It’s like when you want a seat at the lunch table at school. I’m a person who loves fashion and I want to be in the fashion world, but I didn’t feel included in Fashion Week.” For Garner, this was no surprise. “You can hardly shop in malls if you’re over a certain size, so I expected not to be represented at Fashion Week,” she said.
Instagram influencer ashen They were just invited to New York Fashion Week Show in February — by Tiffany Brown, a designer who has done full-body models in the past. “Public relations [public relations] People limit the reach their clients can have by making a non-exhaustive list.” In the past, Greivy has been invited to shows for Cynthia Rowley, Libertine, Anna Sui and more designers, but this year she chose not to email her PR teams to ask The invitations.” I knew I was going to be disappointed just because TikTok influencers are getting all the seats now. She said. “I know very well that TikTokers don’t communicate like I used to either. They don’t know how or who is responsible.” Greivy sees an ongoing struggle to prove she belongs at Fashion Week: “Sometimes designers have a few seats, but plus-size influencers more than sacrifice.”
Most of the attendees at designer shows wear the brand. However, plus-size guests are often left out of clothes. “Brands only wear sample sizes. It’s really hard to show up and not wear a brand while everyone else is because I don’t fit in the clothes,” Griffey said. Oversized might fit her, but it’s not showing it to her in the first place. “They want their image to be a certain way, and that way it’s a sample size,” Griffey said. Only for people who are a size 2. I’ll get a branded handbag or shoes, but that’s it.”
for DJ Ty AlexanderSkipping Fashion Week has become the norm. Not only did she receive no invites this year, but the influencer hasn’t been since 2017. “In addition to being plus-size, I’m also black, so most of my presence in fashion — in the world, really — feels like I’m on the outside looking in,” she said. “There is pressure in the world to stay skinny. This is not a fashion issue. Fashion only mimics what society does. Everything in the world is weak, and I’m afraid that won’t change.
Models are affected too, as they’re required to keep fit and tall for the runways. Giving in to standards has been shown to be detrimental to Natalia Novaes‘ Psychological health. She views the fashion industry as the catalyst for her eating disorder, a struggle she endured for seven years as a model. “I built this international career that I’m very grateful for. But I built that with a body that wasn’t really normal because I was dieting all the time,” she told HuffPost. “I was never able to relax around food. I was always hungry.”
She cited the 2014 Fashion Week in Brazil as a particularly toxic experience. “All the models are really focused on not gaining weight. No one was actually eating,” she remembers. “I remember coming home with this mental exhaustion and feeling so hungry. I couldn’t eat because I had all these shows.” By the end of Fashion Week, Novaes would resort to bingeing. “I was starving myself so much. It’s an exciting environment where everyone is self-conscious, she said.
“Inclusivity is more than just a model on the runway. It’s also the clothing that gets served.”
– Chastity Garner, blogger
When Novaes was only a size 4, customers started complaining about her weight. “I was called a balloon,” she said. “I have big thighs, and I think they’re nice. But I’m not like the stereotypical model who is straight-line.” In the end, Novaes’ work came to a complete halt. She had given up on her agency at the time, and was eager to let her go. “I told my agency I was leaving. They said they were relieved that I didn’t get any work,” Novaes said.
Models and influencers aren’t the only ones familiar with the pressures of the industry; Photographers also avoid photographing large objects. “Physical exclusivity has been the norm for a large part of my career. He said Photographer Alvin Toro. “Everything from runway shows to editorials, ads and catalog shoots was and continues to suffer from outdated ‘beauty standards.’ The 1990s brought digital photo manipulation and the rise of the supermodel. With them came the unrealistic beauty standards we still struggle against today within a week. fashion.”
Toro said he even fell into patterns of physical exclusivity on his shoots. “It was almost impossible for anyone to consider your work if the models didn’t fit the editor’s vision,” he said. “Because of the top-down way the industry works, advertising agencies and brands will adopt a similar attitude.”
In an industry that’s still struggling to be all-body inclusive, it’s up to models, influencers, and photographers as individuals to make change happen. After years of dieting, Novaes decided enough was enough. “I emailed my agents and said, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll gain weight, but I’m not going to diet. I don’t want to hear any comments about my body anymore.'”
Meanwhile, Toro has taken steps to show more variety in his work. In 2019, the photographer partnered with Hungarian fashion designer DrSigner Ini Hegedus-Boiron at Lulu et Gigi Couture at a presentation Editorial photo session in Pariswhich featured several plus-size models and double amputees.
However, plus-size models are often used by designers to check off the box and avoid criticism or controversy. As plus-size fashion became more popular, the industry realized it could profit by tokenizing curvy models. “True inclusivity looks like more than just a token model. It looks like more than this girl gets a chance to walk for a major brand,” Garner said. “Inclusivity is more than just modeling on the runway. It’s also the clothes that are given.”
Despite the progress that has been made, people are still left out of Fashion Week because of their size. “When I became a plus-size model, I was a size 8, which is ridiculous,” Novaes said. “I didn’t get a lot of work, because at no time [designers] You want to make someone diverse, they go to extremes. They think, “Okay, this plus-size woman’s status makes us all inclusive.” The model sees it as an either situation: you’re either plus-size or you’re not, and there’s no in between.
All-body efforts are seen as rebellion against the status quo. Designers receive honorable mentions for offering a larger sized range, however There is no consideration as to why these sizes weren’t there from the start. “These brands have to do better. Just because we’re over size 14 doesn’t mean we can’t be invited [to fashion week]Griffey said.