Plus-Size Models Stage #LFW Size Protest

The models marched for size equality. (Photo courtesy Simply Be)
The models marched for size equality. (Photo courtesy Simply Be)

The size-positive movement has been building a “fashion for every body” campaign for quite some time, but on the other side of the pond, things have picked up steam in the lead-up to London Fashion Week.

And now, seven plus-size models have been staging their own protest against the fashion industry’s fixation on what’s often perceived as unhealthy thinness.

Ahead of London Fashion Week’s start, seven diverse models, including plus-size model Iskra Lawrence and disabled model Kelly Knox, gathered to protest the event’s obsession with size 0 and call for models of more shapes, races, and sizes to be included in its runway shows.

Ranging from a size 14 up to size 26, the women holding placards asking for #FashionForEveryBody congregated outside LFW’s Brewer Street site. The aim was to help challenge the size-2-and-below body ideal and promote confidence and self-respect, regardless of body shape and size.

The models marched for size equality. (Photo courtesy Simply Be)
The models marched for size equality. (Photo: Courtesy of Simply Be)

As part of its “Step Out” initiative research carried out by plus-size retailer Simply Be, which ran yesterday’s protest (and for which many of the models have appeared in campaigns, coincidentally), found more than three quarters (77 percent) of people questioned believe size-0 models should be banned from catwalks because they promote an unhealthy body image.

Eight out of 10 people surveyed said that if designers used more representative models, it would help them sell more clothes, and 73 percent urged retailers to use a variety of different-size models in their campaigns.

The statistics are supported by a study from Warwick Business School, which found that using overly idealized female imagery in ads actually makes women not want to shop.

Laura Costin for Simply Be said: “We love seeing the latest collections at London Fashion Week but just don’t understand why there isn’t more diversity on the catwalks — there’s nothing wrong with being naturally thin, but like our research findings, we would love to see different shapes and sizes.”

“At Simply Be, we think fashion should be a celebration for everyone — especially when you consider that the average woman in the U.K. is a size 16 [a U.S. size 12]. It makes commercial sense, and anything that shows a diverse range of body ideals has to be a good thing.”

Jada Sezer is calling for more diversity in the fashion industry (Photo: Instagram/jadasezer)
Jada Sezer is calling for more diversity in the fashion industry. (Photo: Instagram/jadasezer)

Psychology graduate and plus-size model Jada Sezer, 27, who took part in the LFW protest, says the problem lies with the designers’ small sample sizes, which only thinner models can fit into.

“We are trying to make it compulsory to make samples of 8 and 12 [U.S. sizes 4 and 8], and then they’ll use bigger models,” she said.

“The fashion industry’s argument is the cost, but can you put a cost on people’s health?

“The plus-size industry is the fastest-growing industry at the moment; it’s lucrative so it doesn’t make sense.”

Model Iskra Lawrence took part in the protest (Photo: Instagram/iamiskra)
Model Iskra Lawrence took part in the protest. (Photo: Instagram/iamiskra)

Model Iskra Lawrence, 25, said that not having models who represented her own body shape helped fuel some body-image issues she experienced as a teenager.

“I struggled with my own self-esteem as a teenager,” she told The Standard at yesterday’s protest.

“Struggling to find a body I could relate to in fashion or the media put me under certain pressures to try and look a certain way.

“I think the ideal of perfection and heavily Photoshopped images have such an impact on all of us. We focus on our flaws, but really we should be focusing on other beautiful attributes we all have.”

Kelly Knox is on board with the initiative (Photo: Instagram/itskellyknox)
Kelly Knox is on board with the initiative. (Photo: Instagram/itskellyknox)

Model Kelly Knox, co-founder of Diversity Not Disability, was born with one arm and, after winning BBC Three reality TV show Britain’s Missing Top Model in 2008, is looking to promote diversity in the industry.

“It is a message to the industry to say it doesn’t matter what color you are, size, age, ability, your difference. We all deserve to be represented in fashion. There’s a place for everyone in fashion.”

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