Yes to catwalk diversity but gee, let’s keep it real

While I’m all for seeing someone with a bit of meat on their bones strut their stuff at Melbourne Fashion Week, surely stylists can make the model look aspirational rather than carny freakfest.

Sometimes, making sure you tick off every single diversity and representation box can feel as shallow and side-showy as not putting them in at all. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Pearls were clutched amid gasps of, “You can’t say that.”

But leave it to our Housewives to call it as they see it.

“Beauty and the obese,” was overheard under the breath of one of the more snarky attendees as I exited the runway for Melbourne Fashion Week to catch up with some of the Real Housewives of Sydney for a swish lunch in the city to promote their new season.

Sandwiched into an elevator of injectables and boobs with three of the castmates (one was even wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “It’s basic manners to Botox your forehead”) the conversation suddenly became far more real than any of the bolt-ons pressing up against me.

Real Housewives of Sydney ast members Krissy Marsh, Nicole O'Neil and Victoria Montano. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Reading the room, or the elevator in this case, it felt like a safe space to air my thoughts. Commenting that a lot of the plus-sized models were wearing clothes I could never imagine seeing on a woman over a certain size on the streets, former model turned Housewife Krissy Marsh (who has a teenage daughter who also models in fashion weeks) kept it real.

“I see the plus-sized models backstage and they are all in tears, it’s cruel, they just try and squeeze size 18 girls into size 8 clothes for the sake of it.”

A similar conversation about diversity on the catwalk had played out earlier on the reality show over the divine dinner table of the equally divine cast member Nicole O’Neil’s Vaucluse mansion.

For those not tuned into Housewife speak and remarkably still reading this, Housewife Caroline (who had only just won our sympathy after being treated like an outsider and called a “porn star”) piped up that she was “all for diversity, but how far are we going with this?” adding if she wanted “to see the mix (she would) just go to Westfield.”

Even the Botox couldn’t stop the eyebrows from raising.

The wording was crass and the sentiment definitely missed the mark.

And while the conversation doesn’t feel very 2023 (don’t get me started on the working mothers storyline) there is something to be said about Melbourne’s obsession with box ticking.

Now don’t start flying the diversity, inclusivity and representation flag just yet, because this conversation ain’t over till this fat lady sings.

As a curvy, buxom gal I’m calling it, no woman of a certain size is wearing the clothes the so-called plus-sized models are strutting on the runway this week.

It’s all camel hoofs and clingy fabrics highlighting orange-peel cellulite.

Sorry not sorry, but muffin tops, saddlebags and love handles just don’t fare well in cutouts or midriff baring crops. Rolls squeezing out of peekaboos or shoehorned into ill-fitting ensembles looks and no doubt feels uncomfortable.

It’s not like plus-sized girls can’t look smokin’ (hello aforementioned, boobs), we can rock a V-neck like no other and have junk in the trunk to fill out a dress. It’s a welcome look to some of the bag-of-bones or pancake bottoms on the red-carpet trail.

Many of us are confident in our own skin despite the constant double standard messaging out there.

But we also know what’s going to work and what really, really won’t (a la anything backless).

So stylists and organisers need to step up and get with the program, we are done with the back-fat slapping over a plus-sized woman making it to the runway.

It also feels like another slap in the chops that most of the plus-sized models seen on runways of late are not anywhere close to a size 16 to 22 range (they fall into the morbidly obese category).

While at it, bold-printed matchy-match tops and bottoms don’t do much for the waistline or thunder thighs either. And wedgies or thongs, reaching so far up your bum crack they highlight every lump and bump, is not usually the desired outcome when prepping for a night out.

Because unless you are a Gen Z TikTok star, or living deep in the North, there just isn’t a huge market for letting it all hang out.

Sometimes, just sometimes, making sure you tick off every single diversity and representation box can feel as shallow and side-showy as not putting them in at all.

For an event like the Melbourne Fashion Week (which has a catchcry “runway to retailer”) there needs to be a middle ground. While I’m all for seeing someone with a bit of meat on their bones strut their stuff down the catwalk, surely stylists can make the model look aspirational rather than carny freakfest.

It always seems to be around this week of the year that bearded women start appearing down the runway in an effort to appear inclusive.

When are we actually going to represent and include all types of sizes, colours, abilities and shapes without making it a mockery?

Alice Coster is Herald Sun fashion editor