In the past decade, the fashion industry has taken a leap in terms of embracing size inclusivity and made significant strides toward challenging traditional beauty standards and promoting body positivity. After years of criticism for exclusion and lack of diversity, brands started to carry a good diversity of sizes for their merchandise. However, the fact that the fashion industry is vast and diverse, and the level of size inclusivity can vary widely among different brands, segments, and styles. With all this in consideration, consumers do feel that there is still a long way to go.
After well-known instances like one in 2016, where a well-known comedian Leslie Jones couldn’t find a designer to dress her for an event she took it out on Twitter stating the bias of the fashion industry, and many of such more. The fashion industry took a shift, in 2021 Old Navy issued a statement that they would start carrying from size 00 to 28 in-store, to cater to the needs of demands from plus size customers addressing the campaign of size inclusivity in the fashion industry. They have now started retailing these sizes in more than 70% of their physical stores, with almost 454 committing to offer the same number of sizes as offered on their online platform.
Big retailers like H&M, Athlete, and Zara, have started to strengthen their mission of inclusivity too by extending their sizes up to 6xl. Not only by carrying the assortments, these brands to show their high support to the whole campaign have also partnered with plus size models, activists, and founders to show their new avatar and to affect the changes within the industry.
Runway shows for centuries was showing stick figure model, with acclaimed “perfect” body for fashion shows. While with the whole stir in the industry after the movement big designers have embraced the change and have made progress with its body diversity and inclusions. Many plus-size runway models have paved their path on the runway for famous designers in the past decade.
With all the progress and said changes, the fashion market still has a long way to go says Aayushi Ghosh, an artist, widely known for her work in the music industry. She is a fashion enthusiast and shares her displease during her shopping trips. “Imagine going to a shop and suddenly your eyes catch a beautiful piece of cloth, and you instantly know they would have not had the same thing in your size, so you recommend that piece to the person accompanying you saying that it would look good on them, and you hyping the look while they try it on”; she elaborates.
Shopping is an experience which is quite difficult to enjoy if you are a plus size. Aayushi explains that she can never get out of a store without at least one person judging her frustration of not finding the appropriate size. Moreover, as a stage artist, it is difficult for her to find costumes too. During the interview, she recalls an incident when her stage time was canceled by the producers just because they couldn’t find a matching costume, unlike all the other participants. It breaks your morale. “there is no pleasure in shopping, it is a task for me!” she exclaimed.
Thinking thoroughly as a shopper myself, and recalling all my shopping experiences, there is no doubt about the disparity present in the fashion industry in terms of size inclusivity. How many styles that you browsed through have sizes available that exceed XXL? Very few…? Almost none…?
People do believe that progress has been made, and to a certain extent YES! But size inclusivity does not end at just including a few more sizes in the assortment. It is also creating an environment where consumers do not feel judged, bringing more looks and styles, and training the staff and sales associates to treat the consumers rightly. When it comes to high-end luxury fashion brands, they still have a very limited size to offer and a lack of diversity in their campaigns and runway shows.
The representation is also one of the issues here, there is a lack of adequate representation of diverse body types by the brands in their advertising, runway shows, and fashion campaigns. The visibility of individuals with a wide range of body shapes and sizes is needed to proudly show inclusion.
Talking about the runway models, we did mention they are embracing plus size models, but there are claims that it is just tokenism. Including a limited number of plus size models without making any substantial change in the overall business practices shows the opportunistic side of the fashion industry. In a report by Vouge released just a few months back, they showed the data comparing all the runway shows held in the fashion capitals New York, Paris, and Milan, out of all the 219 shows only 17 brands included at least 1 plus size model.
Size inclusivity in fashion brands is still more than just offering a range of styles, it is a commitment to representation, empowering, showing diversity, and making fashion accessible to everyone. And with the clear image of the industry right now, we have a long way to go.
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