The shape of things to come
New York’s fashion elite are finally getting real about designing for the masses — and sending a range of real women down the runway
WHEN it comes to runway fashions, one size fits few. But that’s changing — as are the glamazons paid to wear them. According to a report from blog the Fashion Spot, models of color made up more than 30 percent of Fashion Week castings for February’s Fall 2017 shows. New York’s major designers are becoming more size-inclusive, too. Last season, Ashley Graham became the first plus-size model to walk in a Michael Kors show.
“Customers want to see what our clothes will look like on their bodies, on their skin tones,” designer Christian Siriano tells The Post.
Last season, Siriano featured one of the most diverse catwalks in town — 10 models were plus-size and nearly one-third nonwhite — and he’s planning to make further strides at his show on Saturday, including casting a transgender model.
Up-and-coming designer Michael Costello — who is planning to include models who fit up to a size 20 at his Friday show — says he’s seen a shift in attitude towards older and curvier models.
“In past years, I think they were overlooked and shunned, and people would laugh at them,” Costello, who has dressed Beyoncé, Laverne Cox and Jennifer Lopez, tells The Post. “Now plus-size women and classics [women over 40] come into casting and walk with such confidence, and they’re not embarrassed.”
This season, popular retailer Torrid will be the first plus-size label to join IMG’s roster of shows when it makes its Tuesday Fashion Week debut.
Even the long-running reality TV show “Project Runway,” which documents the fashion-design process, has made a bold commitment to size inclusion. This year, plus-size women were among the models designer-contestants had to fit week after week.
“You have to know how to design for every body,” contestant Ayana Ife tells The Post. “If you can’t, you won’t make it very far.”
“Project Runway” finalists will show their collections on Friday, and producers say they have committed to highlighting models from different backgrounds.
But the fashion industry still has a long way to go before it trulyuly repre-repre sents the masses.
While Carrie Hammer waswas the first Fashion Week designerer to feature a model in a wheelchair chair back in 2014, models with dis-dis abilities are still outliers —— even though the Centers for Disease ease Control and Prevention reports ports that more than 53 million Ameri-Americans lived with a disability inin 2015.
Still, when it comes to repreepresenting customers, Sirianoo says that New York labels are ahead of the curve compared to those at other fashion weeks.
“New York is doing so well [with diversity], and we have a lot of young brands who are superboisterous,” he says. “Europe isn’t as much on the cusp of what we’re doing.”
But even that’s slowly changing: This week, major French luxury conglomerates LVMH and Kering announced they would no longer work with models who are a US size 0 or smaller.