by Lauren Heaton
Either you’re not enough, or you’re too much. That is the message girls all the way to women hear and believe, especially when it comes to their beautiful, uniquely shaped bodies and styles. A fashion revolution celebrating the beauty in body diversity is underway and not a moment too soon.
A previously tall-skinny-girls-only club is getting a serious makeover thanks to former Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, who featured five plus-sized models in his fashion week runway show this past September. This is a groundbreaking move and is starting a social-media-lead fashion revolution.
Siriano’s inclusivity of a myriad of shapes and sizes at fashion week caused a social media flurry. According to Glossy.com and data analyst Kellan Terry, the social media presence has an unheard of positivity rate of 99.2 percent in the messages being shared.
While this positive social media excitement is fabulous for spurring discussion, what actions are needed to give this fashion revolution the gusto it needs to truly make a change? For starters, designers need to start making sizes for all, specifically luxury designers.
According to Glossy.com, the plus size market in the U.S. alone is estimated to be worth $20.4 billion and the average American woman wears between a size 12 and 14.
This could be considered a niche market as it is a prime opportunity for luxury designers to capitalize on by reaching out to an even more diverse market of women. In the past, the excuse has been that stocking sizes 0-26 are too expensive for designers to produce. With the knowledge about this market’s size and strength, however, that excuse loses credibility.
If step one is for designers to recognize the opportunity for production in the plus sizes, step two is for these designs to be featured in celebrated fashion shows, such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show perhaps.
That might be asking too much too soon of the industry’s leading retailer for impossible-to-compete-with model bodies, but come spring, I would not be at all surprised if more than Siriano’s line is fashion for all.
Finally, we the consumers need to demand that these sizes be made. I am not talking about ranting on Twitter about the injustice of featuring thin bodies only but rather celebrating the success stories like Siriano’s girls and designs. We personally need to share fashion advertisement featuring women of all shapes and sizes, like the campaigns that come from Aerie and Dove Women.
When big businesses see we want, crave and love to share body positivity for all women in our social media feeds, then that is exactly what they will give back to us in the form of advertisements and products.
So, the next time there is a body shaming story in the news, I encourage you to post something positive like this quote from model Ashley Graham, “Labels don’t need to be involved with anything. Especially when you’re describing a woman.”
Join me in supporting this inclusive movement and fabulously fashion forward we will go!
