Skip to main content

On the Runway at Full Figured Fashion Week

Scenes from this summer’s event, a showcase for plus-size clothes.

Released on 09/15/2014

Transcript

This is Lizzy Widdicombe and in this week's issue

I have an article about the plus-size fashion industry,

which is fashion for women who wear sizes 14 and above.

So as part of my reporting for this, I went to an event

called Full-Figured Fashion Week, which was a fashion show

for designers and people who work in the

plus-size fashion industry.

One of the first differences you notice at

Full-Figured Fashion Week, apart from obviously the bodies

of everyone in the room, and the models, is the atmosphere.

The crowd is cheering enthusiastically.

It's as much of a community event and a pep rally

as it is just about the clothes.

One thing that you quickly learn is that the plus-size

fashion industry is a very small world.

There are not many people making clothes for larger women.

And it exists to a large extent on the internet.

So sitting in the front rows at this show were a lot of

the most influential bloggers, who kind of play the role

that Anna Wintour or big magazine editors or critics

play at mainstream Fashion Week.

The women onstage at this show were cast at an

open casting call around the country.

And a lot of them haven't worked as commercial models.

They were trained for this show.

As I got more into the world of plus-size fashion,

you learn that professional plus-size models are subject

to the same pressures that so-called

straight size models are.

They have to have a specific look that works in catalogs

for companies like Lane Bryant or Macy's.

They often have to have an angled face and sometimes

they even are a size eight or a size 10.

The women at this show were, really sometimes broke out

of that mold, and they had all kinds of

different curvy bodies, and different looks.

And you quickly learn that the way you look as a woman

has a lot to do with your attitude and how you

present yourself.

So this show is really about celebrating

different standards of beauty.