As fashion designers, our decisions have the power to change our culture. We choose who is cast in our runway shows and campaigns, and ultimately, who is celebrated and considered beautiful, and who is not. Having this platform is a responsibility. One that can be utilized to exclude people or to empower others. Growing up, I was obsessed with fashion. I pored over all different types of fashion magazines at my local Barnes and Noble. To be fashionable was to be tall, skinny, with long, shiny hair. That’s what I saw as the ideal, and it was reinforced everywhere I looked. And to be honest, it still is. I wanted to be like the models, so I stopped eating. It was a dark time in my life; my eating disorder consumed me. All I could think about was counting every single calorie, and waking up early before school every day so I could run a few miles. It took me years to finally release the grip that the eating disorder had over my life.
But when it did, it freed up so much brain space to think about what I was truly passionate about. For so long, the fashion industry has worked hard to set an ideal of beauty that celebrates thin, young, white, cisgender, able-bodied models as the ideal. It’s impossible not to be bombarded with images of models that have been photoshopped to where there’s not a single pore, fat roll or stretch mark in sight. You don’t need to look hard to find examples. This definition of beauty is damaging, dangerous and destructive, and we need to explode it immediately.
I’m glad you agree.
One of the worst things I’ve realized over the years is that my experience with disordered eating is not an anomaly. In fact, it’s par for the course. I think there’s a study that says 91 percent of women, and likely those of all gender identities, are unhappy with the way they look. It’s unforgivable that we live in a society where it’s normal or expected for teenagers to grow up hating themselves. We’ve been fighting for fat acceptance and women’s body autonomy since the ’60s. And there has been headway. We have plus-size models like Ashley Graham and musicians with body-positive messages, like Lizzo, breaking into the mainstream. Thank God.
There’s brands like Area that have released campaigns without any Photoshop retouching. But we’re still inundated with unrealistic expectations. I love this quote by Lizzo, who said, “Body positivity only exists because body negativity is the norm.”So how do we change the stigma around looking different or not fitting into this narrow definition of beauty? I believe it’s by celebrating beauty in all different forms, bold and unapologetically. But many fashion designers continue to reinforce this narrow definition of beauty. From the way they are taught in school and into the real world, they drape on mannequins that are only size four, or sketch on bodies that are super stretched out and not anatomically proportioned. Different-size bodies aren’t taken into account during the design process. They’re not thought of. So who are these designers designing for? But the conversation around exclusivity in fashion doesn’t begin and end with size.
It’s about seeing people of all different gender expressions, different ability levels, different ages, different races and ethnicities, celebrated for their own unique beauty. In my own work as a fashion designer, I started a brand called Chromat, and we’re committed to empowering women, femmes and nonbinary #ChromatBABES, of all shapes and sizes, through perfectly fit garments for every body. Swimwear has become a huge focus for me, because of the power that this single garment can have over the way people feel about themselves. We wanted to take our focus on celebrating all body types to a garment that’s fraught with insecurity. On our runways, you see curves, cellulite and scars worn proudly. We’re a runway show, yes, but we’re also a celebration. I didn’t start designing 10 years ago with the mission to change the entire industry. But the models we cast at the time, who just happened to be my friends who had begged to be in my shows, were so radical to some people, and, unfortunately, still are different or strange to some, that it became a huge part of what we’re known for. However, inclusivity means nothing if it’s only surface level.
Behind the scenes, from the photographer, to the casting director, to the interns, who is making the decisions behind the scenes is just as important. It’s imperative to include diverse decision-makers in the process, and it’s always better to collaborate with different communities, rather than trying to speak for them. And this is an important piece of the puzzle that many young designers may not think about when they’re first starting their careers, but hiring a plus-size or a transgender photographer, or a woman of color as your casting director, or a black makeup artist — hey, Fatima Thomas — who intimately understands how important it is to be able to work with all skin tones: it’s essential to creating a holistically inclusive output, like this one. As a fashion designers that do a lot of swim, we wanted to rewrite the rules around having a bikini body. So we cast a team of babe guards to enforce guidelines around inclusion and acceptance at the pool.
Instead of “no diving” and “no running,” how about “celebrate cellulite,” “body policing prohibited,” and “intolerance not tolerated.” And this was enforced by babe guards Mama Cax, Denise Bidot, Geena Rocero, Ericka Hart and Emme, all activists in their own right. I’ve always felt it was important to show a range of different bodies in our runway shows and campaigns. But it actually wasn’t until recently that we were able to expand our size range in a major way. We first launched our curve collection five years ago; we were so excited. But when it launched, it fell flat. Nobody was interested. None of our department stores stocked above a size large, and if they did, it was somewhere else in the building entirely. In fact, one time our sales team said, “You know, it’s so cool you have trans models and curve models on the runway — I love what you’re doing. But when the buyers come in to see the collection for market, they want to be sold a dream, they want to see something that they aspire to be.” Implying that our models weren’t that. But I’ve realized it’s so much more important to open up this dream to more people.
I want the consumer to know that it’s not your body that needs to change — it’s the clothes.
There needs to be more fashion options at all sizes and in all retailers. So finally, in 2018, Nordstrom actually placed an order up to 3X. And this was a huge game changer for us to have a major retailer invest in adding these units, so we could go to the factory — now we go up to 4X, which is about a size 32. Having that investment helped us to change and realign our entire design process. We now have different-sized bodies to sketch and drape on in the studio. And if more fashion schools taught these skills, more designers would have the ability to design for all bodies.
So as fashion designers, it’s our job to utilize our platform to explode this narrow and restrictive definition of beauty. My goal is that one day, teenagers growing up don’t feel the same pressure that I did to conform. And I hope that our work contributes to the fashion industry’s opening up to celebrate many different identities. Thank you.(Applause and cheers)