Young Canadian designer Mark Fast, known for his body hugging spiderweb knitwear has caused rather a lot of fuss at London Fashion Week over his decision to use ‘plus size’ models in his runway show. So contentious was the decision, two members of his team quit just days before the event.
Three plus sized models from the Agency 12+UK, strutted their stuff alongside the usual gamine girls, resulting in an enormous amount of interest in the show.
When accused of simply publicity seeking Amanda May, managing director for the designer stated, “The decision to use the fuller girls is something we have been talking about. There’s this idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark’s dresses and he wanted to combat that.”
His team have also been involved in the exhibition ‘All Walks Beyond The Catwalk’ which features models sized 8 to 16 wearing clothes created by young London designers. The exhibition, endorsed by the British Fashion Council and supported by the London Development Agency, attempts to challenge the narrow view of beauty in the fashion industry.
These sentiments are no doubt altruistic and should definitely be applauded (especially in the light of eating disorders) however these ‘plus size’ models at their largest were a size 12-14. In other words the dress size of regular healthy woman the world over. Hardly buxom, these girls were still enough to cause outrage.
May added: “We wanted women to know they don’t have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress- curvier women can look even better in one.”
But I beg to differ…have you seen the pictures? The larger girls look like sausages squeezing out their skins and in desperate need of undergarment support. Any celebrity wearing such a thing would be on all the worst dressed or ‘what were they thinking’ lists the next day. And this is speaking as a size 12 woman. I know instinctively that I shouldn’t be wearing something only Titania, Queen of the Faeries, a size 6 model or a pre pubescent girl could reasonably carry off. I should be wearing Viv Westwood or McQueen perhaps, which often looks much better on a larger gal than a waif. Fashion isn’t democratic and sadly, I very much doubt it ever will be.
For more information on ‘All Walks’ please visit…http://allwalks.org/