Canadian born fashion designer Mark Fast caused a wave of controversy at London Fashion Week by choosing to send ‘Plus size’ models down the runway. The girls who modelled the designer’s famous crocheted creations were from the +12 agency. Hayley Morley, 21, a size 12, Laura Catterall, 20, a size 14, and Gwyneth Harrison, 25, a size 12-14, paraded his knitted dresses as Fast felt the need to prove that curvier girls can also wear his creations.
Fast's managing director was quoted as saying: ‘We wanted women to know they don’t have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress - curvier women can look even better in one.’ –The Telegraph 09. However, it seems somewhat ironic that a size 12 is considered a plus size when the average dress size for a woman in the UK is a size 16...
It is somewhat of a breakthrough though for the fashion industry which has been heavily criticised for only using waif-like size zero models to showcase designer collections on catwalks worldwide. Medical experts fear both girls and young women try to emulate their emaciated idols resulting in an ever growing trend in the number of women suffering from severe eating disorders. Despite the tragedy in 2006 of 2 South American models dying from crippling eating disorders, there are still no medical guidelines in place for models. This is despite the fashion industries meagre attempts to regulate the health and welfare of its models, launching The British Fashion Council’s ‘Model Health Enquiry’ in 2007.
It is questionable as to how the size 0 phenomenon started, and it seems it may all stem from the designers. It has been speculated that using plus size models (size 12) is seen as cheapening a label and making it look somewhat down-market. British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has even gone to the length of writing to designers asking for larger sample sizes last June in a bid to combat the engrained thin is beautiful mantra. Many designer clothing samples often don’t even fit the most established models.
Despite Fast’s wishes to embrace curves it seems his stylist Erika Kurihara wasn’t so happy about the decision. She walked out before the show blaming it on ‘creative differences’. Later she was quoted as saying that ‘two of the plus size models did not have the right walk for the catwalk’ - The Sun 2009.
Is the right walk for the catwalk a strange and jerky gazelle like strut, pelvis pushed forward, looks like the model is being operated by a remote control device, kind of walk? Those of a healthy body weight would find this desired catwalk strut near impossible to imitate.
Let’s hope Mark Fast continues to be a pioneering designer who continues to lead the way for other designers to follow in his fashion forward thinking steps. May he carry on creating designs for a realistic and healthy array of models to show off on the catwalk and in the media for young women and girls alike to aspire to instead of the emancipated stick thin bodies we have globally become so accustomed to.
