“We would love for you to attend our fashion month show.”
Me: “Are you providing dressing options?”
“Nothing in your size, sadly, but we do have these really fun earrings!”
In 2019, this was a common conversation I had with many London Fashion Week shows. It became rather tedious and honestly quite offensive.
For many years, as a plus-size woman, I'd been made to feel grateful to even be invited to these fashion month shows because, quite frankly, I didn’t have the acceptable ‘fashion-worthy body’ that's so prevalent in the fashion industry – even though I had nearly a decade’s worth of high-end fashion editorials, billboards, beauty campaigns and articles under my name. My size was definitely still an issue. Plus-size models were definitely still an issue.
For the last two years I have been recording how many curve or plus size models walk down the runway across the four main fashion weeks and looking into whether any social trends or headlines have been able to alter and manipulate the numbers across the board dramatically.
NEW YORK FASHION WEEK
This time last year we had the rise of the Ozempic trend coming from the US, and it was quite apparent that the impact of this trend alongside the return of archaic phrases such as ‘heroin chic’ and ‘skinny is back’ hugely altered the messaging at NYFW. After a lot of backlash, they more than doubled their numbers for curve models for September to 70 models.
Usually the US are the leaders when it comes to size inclusivity on the runway, so it is a real shame to see the big apple plummet back down from 70 to 42 models this season.
There was also no male plus-size representation, which is highly disappointing from the city that used to be the leaders.
With over 92 designers showing this season, with an average of 40 looks per show, there were around 3680 looks on the runways.
42 of them were considered curve or plus.
The designer loyally flying the flag for representation season after season is Christian Siriano, who cast six plus girls on his runway this season proving time after time he really is for us, for everyone.
Altuzarra had three plus models, while Tommy Hilfiger, Coach, Willy Chavarria, Michael Kors, Carolina Herrera all had only two plus models each and the rest just a single one.
Adore Me hosted their lingerie show at NYFW which included 10 plus size models including Iskra Lawrence. Without them NYC would have been down to 32, similar numbers to their possibly Ozempic-influenced season this time last year.
LONDON FASHION WEEK
With over 50 designers showing this season, with an average of 40 looks per show, there were around 2000 looks on the runways.
67 of them were considered curve or plus.
Although our number is once again higher than New York's, it has still taken a big hit since last season.
With 85 curve models last September - a season in which we didn’t have Karoline Vitto, (as she was showing for Dolce in Milan) and Sinead O’Dwyer (who took us back to her old classroom at Royal College of Arts last season to give a presentation seminar which in turn had a far fewer models than her traditional runway would) - I would have expected us to reach a far higher number this season with the return of a full Sinead show.
In my opinion Sinead O’Dwyer won fashion week. Not only did she have a plethora of plus size models in her show, but she also had two models who use wheelchairs and created an audio version of her show for people with visual impairments.
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She is the one designer in our city who is making sure we all feel included - not just in size, but via many other important pillars of representation too. We need more designers like Sinead.
MILAN FASHION WEEK
With over 64 designers showing this season, with an average of 50 looks per show, there were around 3200 looks on the runways.
13 of them were considered curve or plus.
The only reason Milan did so well last season was because Karoline Vitto was there, with her models counting for 30/45 out of the total numbers for the Italian city.
It is no secret that Milan has never been there for us in regards to the promotion of curve, but I did hope that seeing the impact of Karoline Vitto’s work last season would encourage a little bit more inclusivity for the future.
Dolce didn’t use Ashley Graham like they did the previous year - or, in fact, any plus models in their main show. They only cast Ashley in the Dolce x Feben show, and even then she was the only curve representation.
Now they are back with the worst numbers since 2022. Disappointing.
PARIS FASHION WEEK
With over 104 designers showing this season, with an average of 48 looks per show, there were around 4992 looks on the runways.
39 of them were considered curve or plus.
Ester Manas was back and had an incredible show featuring sixteen curve girls, while The Institut Francais De La Mode came through with a plus size male model and Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood saw Sam Smith showcase two looks on the catwalk.
Although Paris made it to third position with 39 curve models, they are only 3 behind New York and it is the only city this season to actually increase their size diversity by casting 11 more plus models this season.
So are we supporting the cities with the largest amount of inclusivity or are we supporting the ones who are making the changes, as small as they might seem?
Were you surprised by this season's #IncludingTheCurve results? Will London be able to keep the crown of being the new leaders when it comes to inclusive fashion on the catwalk? Do Milan care that they are back at the bottom without support from younger designers? And is Paris making the changes we need and could they move up to second or first position next season?
Personally, I still believe there should be so much more, but the stats I am finding each season with #IncludingTheCurve really show who is championing us, who is leading by example, who is experimenting and who is simply afraid - or even worse, doesn’t care.
Should we be supporting these high-end designers who show little to no representation with a model or two, or demand that they do better?
Or do we stick to hyping up the designers and brands who we know include us always, such as:
…and the ones that aren’t on the runways, but time and time again represent our curvier body shapes:
Let's keep up the pressure and keep everything crossed for more progress by September’s 2024's shows.
For more from Curve model and author Felicity Hayward, follow her on instagram @felicityhayward.
