A problem in the fashion industry since, well, the start of the industry has been the size bias.
Fatphobia, as the name suggests, is the fear and dislike of fat people and the stigmatization of individuals with bigger bodies. This discrimination extends to how clothes are designed since a lot of clothing sizes stop at size 12 or 14, excluding many women from the market.
Due to environmental factors such as pregnancy or menopause, women’s bodies change throughout their lifetime and as a result, we are often left with hundreds (thousands?) of dollars worth of clothes that don’t fit.
What is the solution you ask? Designers are now turning to adaptive design to deal with this problem.
Koi Bird, from Kenyan designer Anyango Mpinga, is an example of a brand that embraces circular fashion and makes clothing that changes with your body, so you don’t have to change for your clothes. Other designers such as Universal Standard, who carry sizes 00 to 40, innovated the term “Fashion Freedom.” They created functional fashion accessible for all sizes, without compromising on quality.
Different is beautiful and it’s time to make inclusive sizing the norm. Comfortable clothing shouldn’t mean unfashionable clothing, and certain styles shouldn’t be restricted to certain sizes.
People like model Ashley Graham and Instagram influencer Jaimie Nicole are currently taking the fashion industry by storm. Breeding confidence and body-positivity, Graham promotes #BeautyBeyondSize while Nicole is co-founder of #WeAreLivingCute; a brand about self-care, body diversity and living authentically. They are redefining beauty standards and are killing it.
It’s time to start having size 16+ models walk the same runway with the size zeros. If fashion is all about variety, then all sizes must be included.
