Plus-size fashion has incresingly become part of the style spotlight in New York with the likes of Ashley Graham, Candice Huffine, Marquita Pring, Iskra Lawrence, and many more becoming a runway regulars this season. But there are still plenty of places where the plus-size set are squeezing themselves in just to be seen by the industry, like London Fashion Week.
Hayley Hasselhoff — yup, you guessed it, David Hasselhoff’s daughter — joined a crowd of fellow curvy models, diversity activists, and influencers, including Megan Jayne Crabbe, Sonny Turner, and Callie Thorpe, for a protest during London Fashion Week early Friday morning. The group, which was organized byplus-size fashion retailer Simply Be (which caters to sizes 12-32), stood outside of the LFW show area in their skivvies, holding signs calling out the UK fashion industry for its lack of size inclusivity with phrases like “LFW —Where Are the Curves?” and “Curves Shouldn’t Mean Compromise.”
It isn’t the first time that the retailer has used its platform to protest at London Fashion Week. Last year, Simply Be not only took to the streets but also kicked off the fashion festivities by hosting its own Curve Catwalk that featured a mix of models and influencers and became the U.K.’s most size diverse runway. But this time around, the brand sought to use the protest to make the industry more accessible after discovering that while the average dress size in the U.K. is a size 16, according to research it had commissioned, 89% of participants didn’t feel their size was represented on the runway or in ads.
“We want the fashion industry to change the way it represents body shapes,” Angela Spindler, chief executive N Brown Group plc, which owns Simply Be, told The Evening Standard. “This isn’t about ‘skinny shaming’ we, think that shape should be celebrated irrespective of size and it’s time that the industry became more diverse — after all, fashion is for everyone.”
Hasselhoff echoed the same statements as the group also posed in denim jackets painted with phrases like “Flaunt it, Support It” and “Your size, No compromise” at Oxford Circus. “We want to give women everywhere the confidence to be who they are,” she explained. “This is only achieved by showing a wide variety of models irrespective of size. By tearing up the ‘one size’ fits fashion rule book we hope to encourage any woman, whatever her size, to feel fabulous in their skin.”
Hopefully this continues the conversation and leads to bigger changes and more visibility for diverse body shapes, sizes, and abilities!