This week is the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival, which, as a model and a fashion writer, is a pretty Champagne-filled, aesthetically-pleasing week for me. Which we love. Especially when it involves walking down the runway in swimwear, flaunting my curves for the whole fashion clique to see.
When I arrived for my fitting, I was so excited to see a pair of bathers on my rack. I actually couldn’t believe it. “You’re going to put me in bathers?” I shrieked to the stylist, Jana Pokorny. She laughed and told me that yes, they were planning on it.
Fittings for fashion shows are different each time, but with this year’s MFF being held at the Exhibition Centre in Carlton Gardens, the fittings were in a big room to the side of the main building. There were no mirrors, just racks upon racks of clothes, boxes of shoes and photographs of models everywhere, with staff running around like headless chooks. Chaotic energy was in the air — but it always is — and that’s what we love about being BTS at major fashion events.
The energy may have been chaotic, but it was also electric — especially when I put on the two-piece swimmers that had been selected for me.
The stylist and her assistant asked me to walk for them, which is standard practise in every outfit you try on. They want to see how it looks and moves on your body, as well as if you’re comfortable walking in it.
“You look amazing in that,” they both said, almost in unison. I knew at that moment that I was going to be wearing it on the night.
Fittings aren’t always an indication of what you’ll actually be wearing in the show. Stylists can do their best to guess which outfits will look best on which model, but they won’t really know until they’ve seen it. This year, I tried on six different outfits and only ended up wearing two. In one of my looks, they changed the jacket last minute. It’s just how fashion shows like this work — they’re spontaneous and creatively charged and I love it.
But it can also make you nervous, especially if you try on something you really want to wear down the runway. And I really wanted to wear those bathers. It wasn’t the bathers themselves that I was obsessed with — although they are actually super cute and I might buy — but it was the concept that me, one of the only curve models cast for that particular runway, would we walking down wearing bathers.
Although we’ve come a long way since not seeing a spot of cellulite in sight, I still feel disappointed at the lack of size diversity in Australian fashion — especially on the runway. When I’ve seen a curve model strutting her stuff, she’s often been the only one in that runway. Sometimes there are two, but hardly ever three. And, when I do see them, they’re never wearing revealing outfits.
Designers seem to want to cover curves up, rather than put them on display. I personally think this comes from the fear that lies within change. They’re afraid that the clothes won’t look as good, that they won’t move as freely, that they won’t know how to style the model, and that they won’t sit right. They’re afraid of what other people — all the fashion gossipers in the front row — will think. So, they put them in something high-waisted and long. Or something loose that comes in at the waist. A big coat or an oversized turtleneck. Hardly ever swimwear — or anything that shows a decent amount of skin.
So, when I arrived on the day of the show and it was confirmed that I would be wearing the bathers, I was excited and relieved. They’re going to send me, a big-booty, thick-thighed babe down the runway showing lots of skin. Finally! I get to show them that I’m not afraid, that I’m proud of the skin I’m in, and that curves are beautiful and deserve to be seen.
It felt like a milestone both for me, in my modelling career, and for the industry here in Melbourne. Melbourne Fashion Festival shows are filled to the brim with designers, buyers, influencers and fashion lovers, and for them to see a curvy girl in a bathing suit, is impactful.
However, while I did take some time to revel in my adrenaline rush, to feel proud of myself and appreciative of the evolution we’ve seen within diversity thus far — I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. That I don’t get to feel this way very often. That it even was a milestone, in the first place. Surely this should be part of the norm now, right?
“There’s still so much stigma against women in bodies that aren’t a size eight,” my friend and fellow curve model, Anucia De Boer tells POPSUGAR Australia.
“We’re used to seeing it on the runway and until we just change it, and get people used to seeing different bodies in that space, then it’s not going to happen.”
We have a problem in Australia generally, with most mainstream brands — the kind of brands that are shown in these runways — only going up to a size 16. How can we show diversity on the runway, if the brand actually doesn’t allow for size diversity?
“To get actual size diversity, we need the organisers of events like these to highlight Australian designers who are actually making headway in this space. This would then really put the impetus on those brands that aren’t creating for diverse bodies, to step it up. By celebrating creatives, designers and people who are ‘doing the work’ when it comes to extended sizing, it then sends the message that we’re celebrating diverse bodies too.”
Another curve model, Jess King, agrees that there’s always room for improvement when it comes to diversity on the catwalks.
“You just have to look at the rich individuality of those attending this week to see how incredibly diverse we are,” King tells POPSUGAR Australia.
“Often I’m just as inspired if not more so, by those around me in the audience as to what I see on the catwalk. It would be so great to see even more of that represented — age, size, gender identity, cultural background — I’m confident that it will just keep getting better and from where it started when I first began attending fashion week 10+ years ago… we have come a long way.”
However, not everyone feels Kings’ confident optimism. On Wednesday, smack-bang in the middle of the week of fashion events, an ‘All Bodies Are Beautiful’ flash mob broke out outside the Exhibition Centre, where PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival was held.
People of all shapes, sizes and abilities gathered together to “get half naked at a fashion show and call out brands for not being size inclusive on a megaphone”, as shared by Demi Lynch, fat activist and founder of news outlet Kaleidoscope News, on her Instagram.
“Brands choosing only thin people to model their clothes reinforces the notion that we live in an anti-fat society,” Lynch tells POPSUGAR Australia. “Fashion is for all bodies, all sizes and all abilities — our runways should reflect this. All bodies are valid and all bodies deserve to be seen in the fashion space.”
Organised by disability advocate Peta Hooke and confidence coach Heidi Anderson, the flash mob caused a stir, appearing all over our Instagram feeds, as well as on Channel 10 too.
“It was such an amazing experience. Peta Hooke and Heidi Anderson did such a great job creating such a positive experience for everyone,” says Lynch.
It’s incredibly inspiring to see others who are proud of their bodies, showing up and demanding representation. It’s what we need for our voices to be heard, to create change, and highlight areas that we need to work on — especially in industries that are as impactful as fashion.
Overall, I feel grateful that I get to be someone who can proudly walk their curves down a runway. It feels like an enormous privilege and a responsibility, to show up and be loud.
Truth be told, I would’ve loved to walk in all the runways. If I could strut down a runway wearing next to nothing every day — my feet would hurt! — but I probably would. I’d love to see more curve models cast in runway shows, dressed in the same clothes that other body types wear.
Curve model Jess Seeto walked the finale runway, but felt that her casting was “tokenistic’.
“The finale in particular felt so performative,” she wrote in an Instagram story.”You could tell they just hired me in the name of ‘diversity’ and not because they wanted to include fat bodies on the runway.”
“Me and the other models that were hired for diversity purposes were all put together in group in a final walk as if to say ‘look here, we did what you wanted! Aren’t you happy now?’ And no. I’m not. Futhermore, when I went into fittings only one of the outfits actually fit. I cried after I left because I felt like my body didn’t fit the clothing.”
Having had similar experiences in my own modelling career — not during PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival but in various other moments — reading this broke my heart. I can relate to Seeto’s experience with feeling yucky about her body because the clothes just don’t fit. It doesn’t matter how comfortable you are with how your body looks and feels, squeezing your curves into clothing while people are looking at you is just not fun. Ever.
And, while I wasn’t present at the finale runway and can’t speak to the display of diversity on the runway, feeling as though you’ve been cast to fit the brief isn’t a unique feeling, as a curve model. It saddens me that this experience is still so common, in the fashion industry today.
This just makes me want to hold onto my positive experience more tightly. I wish I could’ve recorded the sounds from the moment I first stepped out onto the runway.
The women in the front row clapped for me. One of them yelled out “yes, girl!”. Other one said “she’s hot” to her friend, loud enough for me to hear. Curve model Jess King, was actually in the audience. She told me after that the women around her were really excited to see me on the runway, cellulite, jiggly butt, and all.
“Seeing Laura on the catwalk in a body similar to mine, left me feeling inspired,” King tells POPSUGAR Australia.
“She looked confident and hot and her appearance was met with a lot of support from those watching around me. I personally feel so much more excited and inspired by fashion when it’s presented to me on a body I can relate to.
“And shouldn’t we all have that opportunity to feel that?”
In moments like these, I feel for the younger me who used to suck her belly in when she looked in the mirror. I wish I could tell her that this is where she’d be now.
