Across New York, London, Paris, and Milan, the new-season catwalks suggested fashion’s dalliance with body diversity is over
As Heidi Klum once infamously uttered: “[In fashion] one minute you’re in, and the next, you’re out”, and if the runways across the mammoth AW24 season are anything to go by, representation of bigger bodies on the runway is definitely over (and before you come for me for reducing inclusion to a trend, know that a so-called ‘curve’ girl is writing this, okay?).
Though most editors present at the new-season shows in New York, London, Paris, and Milan don’t need a report to confirm a miserable downturn in the number of plus and mid-size models walking the catwalks, Vogue Business just dropped its mammoth seasonal report and the numbers are not good.
After a brief uptick in body diversity that suggested things were shifting in the right direction, AW24 suggested fashion’s brief dalliance with models above a UK8 and US4 was all but over, with just a handful of curve supermodels like Paloma Elsesser carrying the weight of representation on their back.
To lay it bare, plus-size models (US 14+) made up just 0.8 per cent and mid-size models (US 6-12) just 3.7 per cent of people cast across the four fashion cities this season. That’s within 230 shows and presentations, and amongst 8,800 looks. At the top of the pile was London, with 12 per cent plus and mid-size models seen on the runways.
This number is bolstered by the likes of Sinéad O'Dwyer, who has long committed to working with models of different abilities, gender expression, and size, as well as rising casting director Emma Matell, long-term collaborator of O’Dwyer, who this season also worked with Masha Popova to expand the number of curve models on the cast.
Paris was in second place with 4 per cent mid and plus-size representation, largely thanks to the return of inclusive Belgian label Ester Manas, which skipped the SS24 season. Of 36 looks seen on the Ester Manas catwalk, 41.7 per cent were worn by mid-size models and 19.4 per cent by plus-size models. New York, historically a leader in body representation, slipped down the charts to third place with 96.1 per cent of looks worn by ‘straight’ sized models, up from 93.6 last season. Truly fab!
And Milan, which was bumped up representation-wise last season by the inclusion of LVMH Prize semi-finalist Karoline Vitto on the schedule, trailed miserably behind the other three cities. Less than one per cent of models were plus or mid-size, with the weight of representation carried largely by Vitto’s fellow London-based designer and Dolce & Gabbana funding recipient Feben, as well as recent addition to the schedule, Scandi label Rave Review, which was cast by Mattel.
Other labels like Valentino, Balenciaga, and Gucci, which in recent seasons had begun adding plus and mid-size models to their runways, reverted back to historic norms, with 100 per cent straight-sized models walking. However, the finger cannot really be pointed at any singular house or designer: after a brief glimmer of hope, it seems like bigger bodies have fallen out of fashion favour across the board once again.
Read the full, not-depressing-at-all Vogue Business report here.