Nicol and Ford's 2021 runway show, which featured size-diverse models, something the designers describe as ‘double the work’ but ‘a labour of love’. Photograph: Katie Louise Nicol Australian fashion week ‘It’s a whole new world’: Australian fashion week to feature first plus-size runway The May event will also debut a stand-alone show for adaptive fashion designed for people with disabilities

“If I had pitched this idea even five years ago, it never would have happened,” Bonner said. “It’s a whole new world. The way we think about bodies, the way we think about ourselves is so different now.”

Diversity has become a watchword for the fashion industry in recent years. But at the higher end of the market, size inclusivity is a particular sticking point. In Australia, many of the designers who show their collections at fashion week do not make clothing above a size 12 or 14.

Last year’s Australian fashion week drew significant criticism for its lack of larger bodies on the runway, with model Kate Wasley branding size diversity “non existent”. After the 2021 event, artist and model Basjia Almaan, who walked in several shows, also spoke out. “Yes I’m a curve model but I’m still palatable. I’m a size 12-14,” she wrote on Instagram. “Where were the BIGGER bodies.”

The Adaptive Clothing Collective will custom-make every runway look specifically for the needs of their models. Adjustments include magnetic fastenings in place of buttons, and higher seat rises in pants, for wheelchair users. “It’s amazing to have diversity and representation [at fashion week],” Rogers says. “But … [creating] items that actually cater for people’s needs is more than tokenistic.”

“Being an adaptive clothing brand I was across all those sort of things,” Rogers said of that incident. “And the main thing I would say from that is that they [fashion week’s organisers] are not shying away and are not disheartened.”

“I don’t know if it’s because designers are terrified to put anyone over a size 12 or 14 on the runway, or if designers who cater [to those sizes] don’t know how to apply, or don’t have the funding,” Bonner said.

In 2021 Nicol and partner Katie Louise Ford staged their first runway show, the week before Australian fashion week. In a single presentation, it featured a greater range of body shapes than most of the following week’s shows combined. “We design for our community, [so] we cast from our community,” said Ford.

Nicol and Ford are not currently a wholesale business. The pair sew all of their garments themselves, out of their studio in Newtown. While Nicol said wholesaling is something they may explore in the future, the presence of small labels like theirs on fashion week’s lineup suggests the event is becoming less about trade, and more about public interest.

Source: The Guardian

Powered by NewsAPI.org