The beauty of the fashion world is that designers, stylists, editors and creators overall are allowed to have freedom—freedom to create whatever they would like, design for whom they choose and make clothes come alive in their own interpretation.
Part of that interpretation also comes with the fact that designers like Carolina Herrera have very stringent opinions on women’s sizing and the models used on runways. While Herrera’s point of view is famously traditional and her love of the classic white-button down knows no end, she also had some very interesting comments in Harper’s Bazaar as to why her opinions on using certain models who fit into the sample sizes has not changed. When asked as to how she chooses models for her shows she replied, “One of the reasons you show on tall and skinny models is because you have the audience sitting there dreaming that they are going to look like them. You can’t show the clothes on normal women, like me, because it doesn’t work. Fashion is a dream. In shows I don’t use plus size models because I don’t do plus size.”
Keep in mind, this is from her personal point of view—in Herrera’s world, the dream she is selling is a narrow one, and it only involves women who fit into sample sizes. She went on to say, “If I decide to do a plus size collection, of course I would use them! I’m not saying skinny ones are better than the other ones, no. I’m just saying that the shows are shown on skinny girls because that’s the way the clothes look the best, with no forms or anything.”
Hoping that Herrera will come around to the fact that curvy women don’t need a separate collection? The problem is it’s not just her–this kind of thinking has not changed in her 35 years of business, and many designers who have the same thinking have been just as if not more successful, so there hasn’t been a call to action for change to occur unfortunately.