Why Doesn't Fashion Look More Like This?

Four Women, From An Emerging Designer To A Disability Activist, Consider What It Will Take To Fix Fashion's Problem With Body Inclusivity

BILLIE BHATIA
Fashion Journalist

There’s always a standout look From fashion month – the signal that emerges from the noise of a thousand outfits, a snapshot that sums up the mood. From the AW23 season shows, held in February this year, it was a silhouette. On various catwalks, sample-size models wore a series of immensely oversized pieces, and the images of them travelled the length and breadth of the internet alongside captions on the theme of ‘obsessed’. Beautiful, voluminous trench coats, trousers that billowed, slouchy tailoring and jumpers that could compete with duvets. Slim women swathed in puddles of excess fabric was the season’s most desirable look, and it was predictably adored by the crowd of editors and fashion insiders in attendance at the shows. The mood was clear: bigger is better.

In every fashion capital, industry critics swooned over oversized looks. I was no different, cooing over these roomy pieces that left me wide-eyed with wonder that I, too, could partake in high fashion, despite my plus-size body being the antithesis of the usual ideal. But on deeper reflection, I wondered why, if brands were creating such pieces, was it not desirable to showcase them on the range of bodies they would so obviously fit? If you’re creating clothes that are inherently inclusive in shape, does it not make sense to extend that inclusivity to real life? Is oversized clothing only desirable when it’s drowning its subject?

There was really only one conclusion I could draw from this: fashion is obsessed with oversized clothes, just not oversized bodies.