by Lorena Cristea
London Met Journalism held its annual Fashion Newsweek debate yesterday on the Holloway Campus. This year’s topic focused on whether there is a lack of size diversity and inclusivity within the fashion industry.
According to Glamour, out of 3,000 models who were included in New York Fashion Week, only 31 of them were considered curvy.
‘Everything’s come backwards’
Bethan Dadson, the founder of Hoezine and freelance stylist, has been working in this industry for over two years. She believes that many changes need to be done when it comes to curvy models.
Although changes can be seen compared to ten years ago, there is still not enough representation, she told the panel.
“I think it is not fair for plus size or curvy people, in general, to be looking at these models and see they cannot relate to them,” she says.
Courtesy of Bethan Dadson
Nowadays, it seems to be a fever dream of nostalgia. Everybody wants to go back to the Y2K and 90s fashion aesthetic, which is mostly about a shown, flat torso, wearing low-rise jeans.
“A couple of years back, there was a lot more representation for plus-size, but now that everyone’s going into the trend of the early ’90s supermodel, the fashion representation has gone backward.
“When it comes to fashion and women’s bodies, they, unfortunately, go hand in hand a lot of time, so whenever a fashion style is trending, then women’s bodies will trend in that way,” Bethan says.
”Skinny and proud’: an unhealthy approach towards young women’
Young women can be easily influenced by fashion trends, and this could negatively impact their self-image.
Bethan agrees that high-street brands are feeding women the idea that being thin is the only way.
“I would say my body type is a bit above average, I am a little bit on the plumper side, so there are certain things that I might not feel comfortable wearing and I always end up telling myself ‘I am going to try and lose weight so I can fit into this, I can wear that’, and it is not really necessary, because there is nothing wrong with my body,” she says.
“If we normalize plus-size more, there would not be so much body shaming.”
She also believes brands are contributing to body shaming because of a lack of inclusivity.
The artist Lizzo has been targeted to hate by trolls more than several times on social media because of the way she expresses herself through her music and appearance.
“She [Lizzo] wears really nice stuff, but because she is a bigger woman, people are always body shaming her, and she just literally exists, does her music, goes to award shows, and wears what she wants to wear and people have a problem with that,” says Bethan.
‘Boycotting fashion runways might be a solution towards better inclusivity’
The new generation seems to go under extreme measures so that fashion brands can adopt a much more inclusive and diverse image, with one of them being boycotting catwalks.
And history says it all, Bethan thinks.
“Whenever there is boycotting or a protest, there is change. And I think that is something really important, but everyone is too scared to do that when it comes to fashion because the industry is tough,” she adds.
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