At both New York and London Fashion Week this year we saw a significant drop in the number of plus-size models on the runway.
London Fashion Week saw their 80 plus-size models in September 2024 drop down to a mere 26 plus size-size models February 2025.
Similarly, New York Fashion halved the number of plus size models they had from 46 in September 2024 to 23 models in February 2025.
Meanwhile, at Australian Fashion Week, only one per cent of its models were plus-size.
Now, whether you’re someone who cares about Fashion Week or not, it’s important to recognise the power these spaces hold.
As someone who has lived experience with an eating disorder, I’ve come to notice that trends and spaces like AFW have a direct impact on social discourse regarding body positivity/neutrality.
So, how did Australian Fashion Week 2025 do?
I popped over to Fashion Week to have a look for myself.
“The runway is giving 2014,” Allie Daisy King said.
King, a social producer, freelance journalist and fashion lover, said the size representation at Fashion week was “absolutely dismal. It is the most disheartening display of diversity on all counts that I think I have seen at any Fashion Week ever”.
“Most of the time when I go to a runway, majority of the time I’m the biggest person in the room at a size 16, which is absurd.
Fashion creator Tara Chandra said size diversity wasn’t present “across the board” at this year’s fashion week.
“I think across the world and Australia need to do better in terms of size diversity and diversity in general,” Chandra said.
This lack of diversity means she doesn’t “feel connected” to the shows she’s watching.
Similarly, Connor McWhinnie, a fashion content creator, designer and artist, said, “I mean, it’s pretty obvious that there’s not much, or, if any, at all, from body shape to body size to disabilities.”
King pointed out the importance of addressing accessibility issues and brands being more inclusive.
“Think about the people that are invited, to the people who have the ferries to access for plus size people to actually be attending these shows. Being dressed by brands is another thing no one actually talks about because a lot of times the brands dress a lot of people for the shows, but they very, very rarely are dressing people who are above a size eight to 10.”
How’s AFW doing this year compared to last year?
“I think last year was horrible in terms of its size representation, but it was still marginally better,” King said.
She explained that last year, most shows had one plus-size person, but this year, only three shows out of the several she’d been to had plus-size models.
“l think they’ve probably been a total of something like 10 models.”
August Storm, a plus-size model at this year’s Fashion Week, was the only plus-size model in a couple of shows. She noted we had regressed in representation compared to previous years.
Why are we seeing ‘regression’?
McWhinnie said the lack of representation was “just systemic and it’s been always the case, which is not good. It’s terrible that it’s going back to the past”.
Storm sees the lack of body diversity as a global thing that “may be due to the rise of Ozempic and the rise of a possible recession“.
“I do wish that there was more diversity. Not just size, but everything.
“I feel like previous years we’ve had, there has been more [size diversity], I do think also maybe perhaps the production in budgets have had an effect on that as well.”
King noted the growing conservatism worldwide which has seen people and brands “not really having to pander to diverse voices anymore because they don’t feel like they need to necessarily put on a front of pretending to care about diversity because everyone else is trying to stop caring”.
Fashion creator Candy Brat also noted this rise in Ozempic use. It feels like “we are going back to that Tumblr thinspo kind of vibe, which is really scary”.
“It’s those of us who grew up with Tumblr know how damaging that was to our brains in terms of your self-confidence and body image.”
What are our hopes for the future?
Brat said what she’d like to see next year, similarly. “I definitely would like to see more inclusivity, diversity to do with age, race, size, especially.”
McWhinnie said, “Just more inclusivity, body shape, colour, sexuality and trans people on the runway as well. I think that’s really important.”
King said, “Fat people, mid-size people, old people, disabled people, dark-skinned people of colour, brown people on a runway, just everything. All of it.
“I know this year the Australian Fashion Week was a bit smaller, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t have diversity.”
Chandra says, “Fashion can bring so many more people in if they had that diversity in the first place. So I’d love to see it. And I think there’s so much more improvement that needs to be made.
“And we know that it’s possible because there are shows that are doing it.”
Where to from here?
While representation is hard to find, thankfully, there are brands showcasing it. Chandra and Brat both mentioned Nicol & Ford and Liandra.
“Year after year, Nicol & Ford are the leading show in terms of diversity to do with race, size, and sexuality as well, representing some really beautiful trans models,” Brat said.
I asked Storm about her thoughts on a plus-size-focus runway, which AFW showcased in 2022 and she said, “It’s cool to say — a whole plus-size runway — but I think there’s more that can be done.
“I think there’s fantastic size representation out there. I just don’t know that Australia is doing it as much as it could.”
Storm says we need to start with larger sample sizes in manufacturing. “I feel like if you can nail that part of the supply chain, then I think it would have an effect to everything else in terms of size diversity.”
King also says that in her work, she is focusing on platforming diverse voices.
“Instead of complaining about it, we’re doing something about it. I think that, yeah, that is something that has [been] missed this week with all the complaining about different aspects of Fashion Week.
“It’s like, okay, well, let’s do something about it. Let’s actually try to make change.”
Lead image: Getty Images
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