In a society fuelled by pop culture and extreme expectations to look a certain way, it is so refreshing to have the Curvy Couture Runway show involved at this year’s Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival. Women’s health in fashion is always topical and I felt it my responsibility as a journalist to expose the ugly prejudices curvy and plus sized women face.
Show director Jess West is such an inspiring and strong woman who really opened up about the future of fashion for curvy women and how value judgments on women’s bodies are more often than not unjustified.
Tell me about the show. What can audiences expect when they come see the Curvy Couture Runway show?
JW: Curvy Couture Runway is fashion for women who are size 14 plus. So we’ve got 19 designers who are going to be on the runway, 26 models (18 of whom are local Melbourne girls who’ve never modelled before) and we also have professional models joining us from Bella Model Management who are our major sponsor and just wonderful people. They’ve supported us the last two years. This year we’ve gone for more of a salon feel runway with VIP front row seating, we’ve got special guests coming and we’re going to pack into the Lightwell at ACMI for a two hour show.
Was it a conscious choice to have real-life women model in your show?
JW: Yes, absolutely. We’re all about representation and the best way to see yourself on the runway is to see someone like you. It really brings it home that fashion is for everyone, especially when you can see your friend, sister or mum on the runway.
How important are shows like Curvy Couture Runway in promoting women of all shapes and sizes because it’s not mainstream, it’s very left of centre but also very topical.
JW: I’m also a designer so it’s very important to me as a designer to see my clothes on women I would see in the street, so the women I want to see in my clothes should be on the catwalk. We really want to stress that we’re not excluding the straight sizes and we’re not promoting obesity – we’re promoting women in the clothes they want to buy and not in a ‘mumsy’ catalogue kind of way. That’s what fashion is about. It’s about being the ‘you’ you want to be wearing clothes, so it’s really important to have shows like ours so women can see themselves and say I can wear that and I can be that. Plus sized women have been marginalised by fashion for so long because we don’t fit the sample size ideal. It’s really frustrating to see that fashion is only this. It’s amazing to be a part of the Fashion Festival Cultural Program because we’re the only plus size in there and it legitimises what we’re doing and it’s great that VAMFF want to have that. They want to be inclusive and it helps.
Do you think the sizing guideline of what’s shown on the international catwalk needs to be reassessed?
JW: Yes. It’s a media thing and a pop culture thing that plus size women need to be that curvy shape, which not all plus sized women are. It’s an ideal and it’s political to want break that ideal and it’s political to show that on the catwalk as well. It’s as if they want to show plus size but only a specific kind of plus size like Kim Kardashian’s hourglass figure let’s say. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate how well put together she is but let’s remember she has a team helping her.
There is criticism that plus size modelling is endorsing an unhealthy lifestyle. What comments would you like to make on that?
JW: The first thing that I always say to people is that you don’t know what someone does in their life. I am plus size, I box, I walk everywhere, I eat well and healthily but you don’t know that because people will look at me and think, she’s fat! You’re only seeing a superficial image. We promote healthiness with our models to feel good in their body and you can have health at every size. It’s a big movement and something I believe in because not all bodies are going to fit into that stereotype of what fitness looks like, and it is a stereotype. There needs to be less value judgment on bodies and more on what your body can do.
Do you think the fashion industry is evolving in terms of women’s health?
JW: I want to say yes, but I think I have to say no. And if it is, I think it’s evolving at the slowest possible rate. The independent fashion scene I feel is really conscious of health. I don’t think the fashion industry itself though is promoting health for any woman and it worries me that we still have models being airbrushed. They’re beautiful women – it doesn’t matter what size they are and we still feel the need to airbrush them.
What advice are you giving your girls in terms of using this platform in a positive way?
JW: I tell them that people are going to look at you and they’re going to judge you no matter what you do, but the best way to deal with it is to not ignore it, well ignore the negative because it’s not going get you anywhere, but what they say about you is more a judgment on them so if you feel that someone is saying something unjust about you, speak up about it. Don’t be quiet, don’t feel like you have to hide yourself or not be as loud as you can because that diminishes you as a person. I don’t want the women to ever think they have to be smiley and turned on all the time. I want them to have flaws. I want them to talk about it. It doesn’t matter what others think of their bodies. Usually, you’re hardest on yourself. When I look at role models I don’t see their flaws, but I know they have them, and it’s really important to look at someone and idolise them but also know that they’re human.
What is your hope for all curvy women in the future?
JW: I want them to love themselves and feel loved and not be afraid to be that way. There is lot of pressure for curvy women and plus size women to not love themselves and that we have to fix ourselves to be smaller and prettier. I used to feel very pressured that I couldn’t go out in trackies and a hoodie and messy hair because then I’m on the level of ‘bad fatty’. This is a really big thing in fat activism – we have the ‘good fatty’ and the ‘bad fatty’. If you’re a ‘good fatty’ you dress up everyday, you’re clean and well presented because the ‘bad fatties’ are those who laze on the couch all day eating chips. I don’t want this anymore. I just want to be able to live in a society where there is no value judgments placed on body shape. That’s what I wish for the future. And more available fashion. I think the more that fat activism and fashion come together; the closer we’ll be to this world.
The Curvy Couture Runway show will take place on Saturday March 7 at The Lightwell at ACMI. Be sure to get your tickets here and get ready for a bootilicious night out.
