It almost sounded too good to be true! But, this is how Swedish Princess Victoria opened the Stockholm Fashion Week: advocating the inclusion of people of all sizes in all aspects of the industry.
(Video: highlights from Princess Victorias speech at Stockholm Fashion Week. )
Words worth lifting
I've recently seen some posts on social media by Ebbe, XL Biking's founder, about Princess Victoria's speech for the opening of the Stockholm Fashion Week. She spoke flawlessly about inclusiveness, diversity and sustainability in the fashion industry - and, to have such a Swedish celebrity and public figure name the need for better and larger sizes at the Fashion Week was not what I had expected. Victoria's words are worth lifting, they're right on time and came at a well chosen moment in history.
This is not the first time Victoria speaks about globally important matters. She was also one of the speakers at Stockholm Pride. This is exactly what XL Biking stands for: that everyone will feel included in society and in sports!
Never take it for granted
I have seen (and I'm sure most of you have as well) bitter comments flourishing on social media against the creation and production of clothes in larger sizes, and also negative remarks about the body positivity movement. Some of them say bluntly that both favor and champion "overweight" and that if we are to normalise the view about larger bodies we will all end up as unhealthy! Could it be more paradoxal? A person is not less healthy nor less active if that person finds clothes that actually fit! Clothes that make you feel included and make it easier and more fun to move around in! I find the opposite is true: the absence of adequate clothing and equipment makes many feel bad and avoid going out. It seems self explanatory, but we cannot afford to (ever) take it for granted!
A blurred picture
I see the product lineup of certain clothes stores as a big anonymous blurred picture; it's not even worth browsing because it is obviously not for me. Avoidance is becoming a habit so I don't have to go through that experience again.
Take leggings and tights for instance, an apparently trivial (although anxiety triggering) item, but it laid the foundation for a bad relationship with clothes. I'm always open to trying many nice garments like skirts and dresses, just to soon find out how limiting they are - they seldom fit well. Tired, I resort to looking up and scanning through the range of clothing marked "Up to size..." There is often only a few of such items and they disappear fast or are missing to start with. If you're lucky to finally find one you become quickly disappointed when finding out that your choice is limited to an involuntary men's model - that if the store carries big and tall sizes for men. I even tried a pair of leggings with 3D-effect on them, nothing there either.
But, i actually managed to find one that fit! It meant so much to me that I took the time to write the clothing company and thanked them! Our feedback is crucial when we see that brands and stores are moving in the right direction. At the same time I took the chance to question their collection of "big sizes" again. Their current lineup oozed "outdated" and they should integrate more sizes in their regular clothes range, as their competitors did a while ago, and so did some men's clothing companies. And, please, list the size intervals appropriately so we don't have to search and search forever! They were nice enough to mention that their customers want things the way they currently present them, but in reality it is so because of the limited range of products in the big sizes section! Well, I guess we gotta start somewhere, oh inclusiveness! I also questioned them why the larger sizes section never shows up first in the store - why always in the shame corner?
Some can argue that perhaps a better solution would be to just go to another store or section where there actually are clothes in larger sizes. Speaking from myself, I think the recurrent feeling of not being welcome further contributes to escalating experiences of exclusion and unhealthy psychological pressure.
Are we being mocked?
I worked for a business in which we had to try uniforms, this time a jacket. The ladies model was impossible to close further down and the guy's model I tried was too big up there and on the arms. Not Ok! In the winters it wasn't good either without thermal pants that fit (mind you, Sweden is cold!) so, time to hit the store. Women experience swellings during pregnancy due to extra fluids in the body, and as extra dose of mockery on top of what happened to me at work, there was a sign on the wall saying that you need to go up a few sizes if you're pregnant and are choosing clothes.
The list goes on and on. Maybe it would be easier to realize that there are no standards, since everything varies so enormously much. In the same store one can have size "M" and "XXL", such is the absent-mindedness of certain brands. Seems like the only thing they have in common is that larger sizes are often missing! Oh, that we can agree on! Ladies have more parameters that need to fall into place; I promise you that boobs and booty don't always follow size guides in perfect proportion to one another! And it doesn't always work to compensate for that with men's clothes just to find a close size.
Our responsibility
Our bodies are different independently of size and preferences. Some are larger up others down, some are more curvy, some less. It is not a given fact that a person will automatically choose clothes in bigger sizes and only certain colors. The culture is full of ignorant prejudices about people with bigger bodies wanting to hide them. Sometimes the opposite is quite true: people want clothes that will emphasise, mark and highlight their figures. Hello?
Humans should create clothes that fit humans - not make humans fit clothes. As the Princess pinpointed: we need a fashion industry that liberates, not limits!
Nowadays I question the fashion industry more and not my body. But it took me a long time to reach this point in life. I truly hope that our children won't need to experience the same unnecessary stress, anxiety and negative energy that are unfortunately creeping down to younger ages. Adults are keen on talking about everyones equal value and that we have a responsibility to live up to it. Some ideals are easy to find today, and children have become increasingly conscious and hard to protect. It is important to find representation, that fashion models are not seen with only one body type and that imagery will be less photoshopped and more natural. There are some positive trends and more is needed! Who gets to decide that clothes are only to shown and represented by only one body type when diversity is who we are? I'm not a before-and-after story neither a "before" picture. I'm a person, and I carry the potential to be an example just as anyone else. We're all responsible! - Johanna Berg
For XL Biking.
