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In previous editions of the Vogue Business size inclusivity report, across menswear and womenswear, major luxury houses fell far behind smaller, younger labels when it came to size-inclusive casting. For Spring/Summer 2024 there were some glimmers of hope among fashion’s upper echelons, as Balenciaga, Ferragamo and Mugler entered the rankings for the first time. But the brands at the top remain smaller and independently owned.
Taking into account all four cities, Karoline Vitto and Chopova Lowena ranked joint first with 100 per cent size diversity, meaning all of the models were either mid-size (US 6-12) or plus-size (US 14+). Vitto’s show featured 13 plus-size models and 17 mid-size models, the highest plus-size representation of any show. Chopova Lowena skewed more heavily to mid-size, with 40 mid-size and two plus-size models. New York’s Bach Mai was second, and London-based designers Palmer Harding, Di Petsa and Patrick McDowell ranked third, fourth and fifth respectively.
As with last season, Vogue Business analysed every runway show and presentation reviewed by Vogue Runway from the official New York, London, Milan and Paris schedules to calculate the proportion of total looks that are straight-size, mid-size and plus-size. Brands were contacted to allow them to verify the data and informed that if they did not verify, the initial figures collected by Vogue Business would be used. Sizing ranges were determined based on typical sample sizes for straight sizing and established definitions of mid- and plus-size.
As ever, there remains very little representation of plus sizes on the runway. Of 9,584 looks across 230 shows and presentations in New York, London, Milan and Paris, 0.9 per cent were plus-size (US 14+) and 3.9 per cent were mid-size (US 6-12). This means 95.2 per cent of looks presented were in a straight-size (US 0-4). This is a slight improvement on AW23, where 95.6 per cent of looks were straight-size, 3.8 per cent were mid-size and 0.6 per cent were plus-size.
Mid-size model Paloma Elsesser walked in all four cities this season, telling Vogue she was hoping her absence last season would have opened up opportunities for other mid- and plus-size models. When that didn’t happen, she felt a responsibility to come back. “I was hopeful we would see continued progress, but there has been an unapologetic propensity toward thinness,” she told Vogue. Mid-size model Jill Kortleve was also prominent across major shows such as Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Mugler.
Elsesser was one of six mid-size models to walk Balenciaga this season, along with plus-size pop star Yseult. It was the first time a plus-size person had walked the Balenciaga runway and placed the brand second in the Paris Fashion Week ranking, with 1.1 per cent plus-size looks and 6.9 per cent mid-size. The collection was inspired by designer Demna’s personal muses, making the casting more representative of real bodies, as he cast his friends, family and fashion industry icons including his mother, fashion critic Cathy Horyn and performance artist Amanda Lepore. It remains to be seen if this a permanent shift in casting for one of fashion’s most prominent houses, or simply a moment for SS24, before returning to the straight-size status quo.
Mugler also joined the top 10 in Paris for the first time, placing fourth with 7.7 per cent mid-size looks (though no plus-size). Under Harris Reed’s leadership, Nina Ricci jumped from third place last season to first place this season, replacing size-inclusive label Ester Manas, which did not show this season. With more overall size representation in Paris this year, Alexander McQueen inched down from fifth place last season (with 5.5 mid-size looks and 1.8 per cent plus-size looks) to sixth place this season (with 4.4 per cent mid-size looks and 2.2 per cent plus-size looks).
Plus-size model James Corbin says he wasn’t approached to walk any shows in London this season — where both menswear and womenswear collections were presented. The only show he was booked for in Paris, Christian Cowan’s, was off-schedule (and therefore not included in our data). The New-York based designer — who typically shows during New York Fashion Week — brought an inclusive cast to the Parisian stage, including Corbin and mid-size model Monet Lauren. “Every fashion week we [plus-size models] want to be a part of it; we want to add something new to the industry,” says Corbin. “For a New York-based brand to do this, in Paris, is something new and a new standard has been set… I expected to walk shows in London, but that didn’t happen. Not many shows were inclusive enough to have a plus-size male model.”
In Milan, representation inched up slightly with straight-size models representing 96.8 per cent of total looks in SS24 compared to 98.1 per cent last season, mid-size models representing 2.2 per cent (compared to 1.7 per cent) and plus-size models representing 1 per cent (compared to 0.2 per cent). Two bigger brands played their part: Moschino entered the top 10 this season, with 9.1 per cent mid- or plus-size models, while Dolce & Gabbana increased from ninth last season to sixth position this season at 8.9 per cent. In 2019, the Italian luxury brand officially extended its women’s collection size range, which now goes up to IT 54, the company said. Another name to enter the top 10 this season was Ferragamo, with 4.7 per cent of models mid- or plus-size.
London-based designer and Fashion East graduate Karoline Vitto helped to boost Milan’s numbers. She chose the city for her first solo show, which was sponsored by Dolce & Gabbana. Vitto topped the Milan charts with 100 per cent size diversity and came joint first globally alongside Chopova Lowena. It wasn’t easy: with Ester Manas absent from the Paris schedule, Vitto told Vogue Business ahead of her show that fewer agencies were flying plus-size models between the European cities. “We’re going to have to fly out a lot of girls who we casted in London,” she said. Castings, which was one of the biggest costs this season, started a full month before the show.
Despite Vitto’s absence, London remained the most size-inclusive city this season, with 1.6 per cent plus-size looks, 9.6 per cent mid-size and 88.8 per cent straight-size. This is a slight increase on AW23, where 1.5 per cent of looks were plus-size, 5.8 per cent were mid-size and 92.7 per cent were straight-size. London is now the first of the big four to have total size diversity above 10 per cent. Chopova Lowena, which did not show last season, ranked first in the UK capital with 95.2 per cent mid-size looks and 4.8 per cent plus-size. The brand street casts its models. Palmer Harding placed second, joining the top 10 for the first time. Di Petsa remained in third place, Patrick McDowell jumped from seventh to fourth place, and Bora Aksu remained in fifth.
Sinéad O’Dwyer, the second most size-inclusive designer in the AW23 ranking, dropped off the list this season because her show was not covered by Vogue Runway. She trialled a new format for SS24, presenting her collection at her alma mater, the Royal College of Art, alongside a panel discussion, during which she elucidated the production processes involved in creating size-inclusive collections.
She highlighted that part of the problem starts with education. “When you go to study fashion, you’ve already been given the body that you’re going to be designing for. The mannequins are a certain size, and so are the blocks which you’ll base your patterns off. Of course you can make your own blocks, but with so many deadlines and so much pressure to create innovation in terms of creativity very quickly, are you necessarily going to?” she said. “It’s so odd because fashion as a creative art is so centred on the body, but then the first creative decision you make about the body you choose to design for has been taken out of the equation.”
Including diverse and marginalised bodies on the runway is a political act that not many designers are willing to do, argues Enam Asiama, a plus-size model and advocate. “It’s important to have designers, like Sineád [O’Dwyer], who know the audience and don’t really care what fashion thinks. They’re making up their own rules as they go along, and I don’t think that we celebrate these designers enough,” she says. “Many designers aren’t willing to step outside of that bubble, maybe out of fear that they might not get that popularity if they do.”
For Rio Uribe, the designer behind Gypsy Sport, which was ranked second in New York, size inclusivity is a no-brainer — even when it’s waning. In New York, 1.2 per cent of looks were plus-size, up from 0.6 per cent last season. Mid-size representation fell slightly, from 5.7 per cent AW23 to 5.2 per cent this season. “We know that inclusivity and diversity has been up-trending and now it's down-trending,” Uribe says. “But, we wanna let people know that it’s not a trend for us and that it’s really just part of the brand ethos and the community that we work with.”
Gypsy Sport used to adjust samples after casting, but Uribe found this approach to be unsustainable when they kept having trouble with sizing on the day of the show. Now, Gypsy Sport makes samples in a range of different sizes, and casts accordingly. It’s still complicated, but makes more sense in the long run, Uribe says. “When we are casting, we will say, OK, the purple dress is a size 16, we need to find a size 16 model. Or, the red dress is a size four and has accessible closures for a disabled person. So, we have to find the right person for that dress,” he says. “It’s almost working backwards.” It makes life easier on the production side, he adds, as it helps the brand sell to a bigger market.
Women designers prioritise size inclusivity
Young women designers such as Elena Velez, Collina Strada, Di Petsa, Yuhan Wang, Chopova Lowena and Karoline Vitto continued to prioritise size inclusivity in SS24. For Di Petsa founder Dimitra Petsa, inclusivity should be inherent in the female gaze. “Most women’s fashion is designed by men and you can see some unrealistic or impractical [elements because of that],” she says. (This season, discussions about the lack of representation of women and people of colour in top creative roles mounted when Kering announced that Séan McGirr would take over as creative director of Alexander McQueen, replacing the group’s only female creative director, Sarah Burton.)
For Petsa, it comes down to understanding the women who wear her clothes as human beings, not mannequins to decorate. “For a lot of women, our bodies fluctuate throughout the month, so it’s important to take that into account and create clothes that can fit if you gain or lose a bit of weight,” she says. She does this through stretchier fabrics and items like corsets that can be adjusted. Chopova Lowena, the most size-inclusive label in London for SS24, also featured corset dresses that can be easily adjusted, fitting from a UK8 to a UK16.
Petsa accounts for flexibility in her casting decisions, too. “It’s important to cast for the size but for the person. There are a few people I know I’m going to cast every season and I make something directly for their bodies and ask their measurements a few weeks before,” she says. That means putting a bit more time and effort into creating patterns. “We also make some samples a bit larger and take them in before the show, or [reassign] the sample to another model and find something else for her.” Petsa emphasises that a size-inclusive approach must extend to trans models too.
New York-based Kim Shui also creates clothing with flexibility for the female body in mind. “I include a lot of adjustable sizing so that in production there’s more flexibility allowed,” she says, bearing in mind that not everyone has the same bust/waist/hip ratio or torso length. “For instance, the corsets all have lace-up, so it’s much more varied sizing. When we do fittings, I try my samples on a diverse range of sizes to see how it fits — especially if we’re working with pieces that are bodycon or accentuate the bust.”
The role of fashion councils in driving change
For the designers that send size-inclusive models down the runway season after season, the conversation is getting tiresome. Why should the designers for whom inclusive casting is a no-brainer — those who are the exception, not the rule — have to be the spokespeople for something that, to them, isn’t an obligation, but a choice?
Perhaps change needs to be mandated beyond brand level. Copenhagen Fashion Week (CPHFW), which also acts as the city’s fashion council, took a top-down approach to size inclusivity. In 2007, it introduced the Danish Fashion Ethical Charter, which includes promoting and working towards greater diversity in the fashion industry regarding ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, size and socio-economic status. It also states designers should be “aware of and take responsibility for the impact the fashion industry has on body ideals, especially on young people”.
CPHFW also seeks to promote a more healthy beauty and body ideal in the industry in general. “It’s something our brands have been aware of — and actively working with — for many years now and we’ve definitely seen a remarkable improvement over the years,” says CPHFW CEO Cecilie Thorsmark. “Of course one can always do better, but we’ve come a long way this last decade. Today, as part of Copenhagen Fashion Week’s Minimum Standards, which came into effect earlier this year, it’s a requirement to be a signatory of the Danish Ethical Fashion Charter and to comply with its rules and values. We do backstage checks to monitor this and we also advise brands whom we see might need an extra push.”
It works: at CPHFW, out of 503 looks across the 18 CPHFW shows on Vogue Runway, 1.4 per cent were plus-size looks, 15.3 per cent were mid-size and 83.3 per cent were straight-size, which is considerably more size inclusive than any other city.
When asked about size inclusivity, the CFDA declined to comment for this report, instead sharing its Initiative of Health, Safety and Diversity, which goes in depth into protecting the wellbeing of models and providing advice for brands to identify the signs of eating disorders. There’s no mention of size inclusivity in the memo or the initiative’s web page, and the CFDA does not currently provide guidance or quotas improving size inclusivity on the runway. Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode also declined to comment.
The British Fashion Council (BFC) is taking inspiration from Copenhagen, says CEO Caroline Rush. “The efforts made by CPHFW to promote size inclusivity provide an excellent blueprint for us to consider. While we don’t currently have a size inclusivity charter for London Fashion Week schedule designers to sign, the BFC uses its platform to provide brands, including those on our schedule, with information so they can make informed choices,” she says. “Diversity and inclusivity is central to our mission at BFC, and we are in frequent communication with our fashion council counterparts and continue to share our experiences, challenges and best practices so we can collectively accelerate positive change, including a push for size inclusivity, on a global scale.”
Having a set of rules and regulations for brands to adhere to could enact change on an industry level, but is it sustainable, questions model and advocate Asiama. “Forcing something to happen might bring on change quickly, but it might not be as effective. What we want is long-term impact,” she says, pointing to previous trends such as the body positivity movement which failed to create a lasting impact in the industry. “If we just have a bunch of people show up in these spaces to hit diversity quota targets, without having any real care for the community, we’ll see the industry start to regress and support for those communities end once those targets disappear.”
With data analysis by Emily Forkan.
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The Vogue Business Spring/Summer 2024 menswear size inclusivity report
Karoline Vitto is bringing size inclusivity to Milan. Can it scale?
The Vogue Business Autumn/Winter 2023 size inclusivity report
