Throwing fashion a curve
We must normalize mid-size women. Charlie Gowans-Eglinton explains why.
Victoria Beckham, who has designed a new body-conscious jersey range called VB Body, is heralding a more inclusive era of body ideals. “It's an old-fashioned attitude, wanting to be really thin. I think women today want to look healthy, and curvy ... the curvier you are, the better my VB Body dresses look.”
Curves are chic! Fantastic news, obviously. But ... are they really? I fluctuate between sizes 10 and 14, meaning, like most women, I fall into the “mid-size” range which covers bodies from size 10 to 16 (bigger than six-toeight “straight” sample size, and smaller than plus-size, which is 18 and over). Having written about fashion for the past decade, I have never felt that my body was chic, or fashionable.
The vast majority of models I see on catwalks are still 5-foot-10 and a size six to eight. The average woman is a size 16 and 71 per cent of all womenswear sales are in the 10-16 mid-size bracket. It makes sense for fashion to celebrate mid-size bodies — I just don't think it has yet.
It's true that in recent years, a second body ideal has emerged — the Kim Kardashian one. Kardashian, and other hourglass women such as the supermodel Ashley Graham celebrate their curves in body-hugging dresses, like the one first worn by Marilyn Monroe and then dusted off by Kardashian for the Met Gala. The ideal bottom might have grown a few sizes — but it's by squats, not snacks. It's a “Jennifer Lopez in a catsuit at the Super Bowl” bottom, not an “average woman in a tracksuit at the supermarket” one. And, of course, you need a tiny “snatched” waist to emphasize it, something Marilyn and Kim have in common, but most of us never will.
“I think what Victoria Beckham is referring to is that move to a curvier ideal — so yes, big bum and boobs, but still thin leg and arms and a very thin waist,” says influencer and podcaster Alex Light, who advocates for body positivity after recovering from an eating disorder. “It still isn't considered attractive to have big arms or a big stomach, those things have never ever been in fashion, and at the end of the day this `curvy' ideal is still a totally unattainable body type and shape for the vast majority of us. The problem with this is we're moving from one body trend to another, and still dictating what women should and shouldn't look like. It would be far better to embrace women exactly as they are, and make clothes to accommodate that, rather than trying to accommodate a new body trend.”
Plus-size models have become a more common sight on catwalks, shoots and ecommerce sites. Some have argued that this shift is glamorizing obesity, and with skinny heroin chic once at the other end of the spectrum, it does seem that fashion continues to worship body extremes. It's important to normalize seeing different sized bodies in fashion — and for plus-size women to feel included in this notoriously exclusive world. Designers create clothes mostly in sizes 6-8, and then models are found to fit into them. When it comes to perfecting them for sale, fit models are used to make sure that clothes really work on the body. But very few brands work with fit models with different body sizes, most using sample size models.
Actress Bryce Dallas Howard once said, “I like having lots of options for a size six, as opposed to one option,” to explain why she buys her own dresses, rather than borrowing them directly from fashion houses like most of her sample-size co-stars do.
For mid-size women, there are some signs of progress. Our demographic is increasingly being catered for on the catwalks — at Valentino's couture show in January, eight mid-size models walked the catwalk. Alexander McQueen has been including mid-size models in its catwalk shows for years without mention. Probably the most successful mid-size model of the moment is Jill Kortleve, who has modelled for Chanel and Versace, and appeared on the cover of French Vogue, size 10 to 12.
The drive to normalize the mid-size women is being championed by influencers like Light who share their outfits of the day and unfiltered bikini selfies. Nevertheless, their voices and bodies remain a tiny minority. For every Vogue cover that Graham appears on, there are hundreds of sample-size model covers, and for every mid-model on the catwalk, there are hundreds of their sample-size peers.
There's an ideal height, an ideal weight — and while a peachy bottom might now be en vogue, we've still got a long way to go before fashion embraces a less peachy one ... and everything else that comes with it.