Fashion Designer Showcases Women of Various Shapes To Prove Sizes 'Don't Make Sense'
@smart_glamour/InstagramFor so many women, walking into a store and trying on clothes can be a harrowing experience. That's so much the case that many women avoid the trip altogether. The average woman’s body type is rarely reflected in fashion choices at mainstream stores.
It’s an issue within the fashion industry. But sadly, many women internalize the lack of options as something wrong with them. One designer is hoping to shift that thinking.
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Designer Mallorie Dunn wanted to show how the same size could look different on various bodies.
The fashion designer recognizes that the sizes XXSmall to 5X are not sufficient when it comes the variety of body types in the world. “That just doesn’t make sense,” she said, Upworthy reported.
The nonsensical sizing is what inspired Dunn to launch a project around her clothing label Smart Glamour. Dunn took pictures of 60 models in 12 sizes to show how clothing looks different on various body types.
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Dunn says there's a problem with traditional sizing.
She put five women in the same size skirt and photographed them, showing how clothes look different on different women, no matter what size they are. She hoped the project would show that 12 sizes don’t address the needs of the human body.
Furthermore, Dunn said the designation of sizes are arbitrary. Still, those labels can make women feel inadequate.
'We've been taught forever that the bigger something sounds, the worse that it is,' Dunn said.
"I had a convo with a friend of mine who was like 'Yeah, if I went from a medium to a large, I'd be fine with it, but if I went from a large to an extra-large, that wouldn't be OK' and I was like, 'Why???' And she had no rational reason behind that," Dunn said via Upworthy, describing a conversation we've all either had, started, or heard. "We've been taught forever that the bigger something sounds, the worse that it is."
Dunn wants to create a world where the emotional burden of trying on clothes is removed.
Dunn wanted her campaign to show real women’s bodies, unlike what we often see in the media. As she said, human beings aren’t “robots who come off of a conveyor belt. We’re all shaped differently.”
Three in four teens reported feeling shame after three minutes of looking at a fashion magazine, according to the Women’s Media Center. Dunn’s goal is to begin the work to create a world where women can try on clothes without the emotional burden of whether the clothes fit.
'We shouldn't then think when something doesn't fit us that it's somehow our fault,' Dunn explained.
Dunn hopes to inspire women to worry less about sizes and fit and instead focus on what looks good on our bodies.
“Let the clothes handle the emotional roller coaster of not fitting,” she said. “You just live your life in the body you've been given. … Clothes are not made for all bodies. ... We shouldn't then think when something doesn't fit us that it's somehow our fault."
