Sizeism: Fashion Ends At Size 12 Says Project Runway Mentor
August 28, 2013Fashion Failure: Sizeism Earns Fashion Designers A Big "F"!
"Go to Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue, I think it's the eighth floor, and it's just a department called 'Woman.' It's rather devastating. You've never seen such hideous clothes in your entire life. I mean, it's simply appalling. Thank God there are no windows on that floor, because if I were a size 18, I'd throw myself right out the window [after seeing those clothes]. It's insulting what these designers do to these women."-Tim Gunn via The Huffington Post
According to Tim Gunn, a mentor on the popular TV show Project Runway, sizeism is alive and well in the fashion industry. That's no news flash to anyone that has been overweight but it's nice to see a fashion industry leader speak out and tell it like it is.
Gunn says that one of the hardest challenges contestants face on the reality show is when they are asked to design clothing for women of a normal size or larger. So if competing designers are proving the task to be difficult, what does that say about the fashion industry worldwide?
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Gunn says that when shopping in stores with "real" women, he finds that any sense of fashion seems to end at size 12. "How ridiculous is that?" Gunn said. He went on to say that the lack of fashionable plus sized clothes for women is "repugnant".
Gunn tries to encourage designers on Project Runway to think outside the box and reminds them that not every woman out there is a size 2. He says there are two markets that need fashion attention: Women who are petite and women who are over a size 12. But Gunn says that most designers have little or no interest in designing fashionable clothes for either population.
Fashion designer and star of "House of Curves" Kenyatta Jones is one exception. As a plus size woman herself, she didn't like what was available on the market so she set out to change the way the fashion industry views full-figured women. "Fashion forgot about fat people." she says. As CEO of Bella Rene, she designs high fashion clothing specifically for women who wear size 10-28.
The fashion industry definitely needs more Tim Gunn's and Kenyatta Jones's! It's time for the industry to reach beyond catering to the size 2's and to realize that women (and men) come in all shapes and sizes.
Wake up designers...individuals of a larger size want stylish and fashionable clothing too!
Speaking of Fashion!
Click here to view part one of the ObesityHelp Cincinnati Fashion Show!
Click here to view part two of the ObesityHelp Cincinnati Fashion Show!
Come celebrate weight loss success at the ObesityHelp Fashion Show in Anaheim, CA on October 4th and 5th! Fashion Show sponsored by Fit Frappé
Photo Credit: Kanaka Rastamon