Oversized model – New trend of fashion village
Upon hearing that Victoria’s Secret’s annual lingerie show was canceled, oversized model Robyn Lawley celebrated.
Not only did the show stop making the brand for two decades, for the first time the lingerie firm used an oversized model – Ali Tate-Cutler (size 14) – to promote the Autumn-Winter collection 2019 with the slogan “Love yourself “. This move is supposed to salvage the situation where the brand is declining reputation and sales.
More and more shows and fashion brands are using oversized models (size 10 and up). Six years ago, a fat model was an utopia on the New York Fashion Week catwalk. This year, the event had 94 times the oversized models striding on the runway. A few weeks before the New York Fall-Winter Fashion Week earlier this year, Steven Kolb – Chairman of the Council of American Fashion Designers (CFDA) – conveyed the message to fashion houses participating in the casting: “When you select people. model, remember to appreciate and care about diversity on the runway”.
According to Fashion Spot, Fashion Weeks in New York, Milan, London and Paris use a fatter model from Spring Summer 2016 to this fall, from 16 to 50. Christian Siriano, Chromat, Gypsy Sport, Tadashi Shoji are the ones that often use fat models for shows. In 2015, Robyn Lawley became the first fat model to appear in the popular swimwear magazine Sports Illustrated. A year later, Ashley Graham made the mark as the first model of size 16 to cover the magazine.
Oversized model Robyn Lawley (size 12) wrote on Instagram: “I guess Victoria’s Secret didn’t show diversity on stage”. Robyn once condemned the perfect body concept of a lingerie company, selecting all standard body models for the annual show. According to Time, the fashion house has been too focused on the sexy image of an outdated ideal.
For decades, the trend of heroin chic – reflected in the thin image of supermodel Kate Moss – crept up, creating a race of size 0 of the US size system (for women with measurements from 76-56-81 cm to 84-64-89 cm). For many years, the fashion world liked thin models with sizes from 4 to 8, so the costumes are not for fat people.
The oversized model image is a way for women today to assert their diverse body beauty instead of following men’s standards. According to The Atlantic, Victoria’s Secret was originally created as a paradise for men. Former chairman Howard Gross once boasted he did not conduct any research on women’s requirements for underwear. Instead, the company’s male executives sat down and shared romantic fantasies.