Let’s Talk: Body Positivity

What happens when body positive role models discuss inclusivity in fashion

This month, ahead of hosting Australia’s most inclusive swimwear runway, we gathered together a group of influential industry insiders, international models Robyn Lawley and Zach Miko, seasoned journalists and creative directors, to discuss diversity, body confidence and what’s important to the future of Australian fashion.

“This conversation about body image and body positivity and dress size, is something I’ve been having since I was eighteen years old, internally and also as a journalist. And now it’s something that I’m having also as a mother of two teenage girls,” says Paula Joye, editor of The Joye.

THE ICONIC Round Table 2018

Challenged and held to account by body positivity advocate and model, Robyn Lawley, the panel addressed the obstacles that brands are tasked to overcome in order to facilitate change, from historic production practices to brand values and model casting.

“We are a brand who pride ourselves on diversity and inclusion,” says Paul Sweet, MD of Levi’s® Australia - a man who has worked for the denim giant twice in his career. “I’ve been in this role for 5 years. In that time we’ve doubled the number of sizes we carry. In a typical department store we have 60 square meters or less, and in that space you can only hold so many sizes, so there is pressure to refine the range to the most productive and profitable. We’re battling against history. If we never carried a size in the past, we either have to present a business case, or rely on customers telling the retailers they are missing their dollar! Some of those barriers have been unlocked through online. Partnering with THE ICONIC, we are able to present a wider assortment, with a full suite of sizes.”

THE ICONIC Round Table 2018

Steering the initiative on behalf of THE ICONIC was Mareile Osthus, Chief Category Management Officer. “I see this as an opportunity for us to change, and to drive progress. That’s something very important and I’m very happy that i’m in a position to empower brands and encourage brands to talk about to think about what this topic means to them.”

THE ICONIC Round Table 2018

It seems even now that there is still a way to go in changing old habits, but the overall sentiment was of progress, not perfection. Having the conversation is a crucial step on the path to improvement. As Robyn states, “Images of only size 6 girls are damaging. They're not including diversity. It’s the ‘Me Too’ time. It’s the time now. I’ve had my own label so I used to make my own samples and what really surprised me is when I dictated that I wanted a certain sized sample it could actually be done and it wasn’t, that, hard.”

THE ICONIC Round Table 2018

So as we incorporate a better range of body types, shapes, colours and sizes, how do we talk - and write - about them? Melissa Singer, Fashion Editor at Fairfax Media offered her solution, “I’ll often say during an interview with the model, ‘What would you like to be called? How do you identify yourself?’ then I can mirror the language that he or she used for themselves, so that I’m not describing a label to them… but I want to get to a place where we don’t write about it anymore because it’s just normal.”

Thanks to Paula Joye, Arnna Johnstone, Patreece Botheras, Paul Sweet, Melissa Singer, Paul Elsibai, Robyn Lawley, Zach Miko, Amy Clark, Assia Benmedjdoub, Mareile Osthus, Alexander Meyer.