News flash, this just in: fat girls don’t at all times need to pour themselves into stretchy, skin-tight dresses, contrary to what many designers, including people who showed at Copenhagen Fashion Week’s SS23 edition, appear to think. To offer the town’s creatives their credit, that many shows featured one or two larger models can only be a superb thing – when it comes to visibility, seeing individuals with bodies that transcend sample size is at all times refreshing. But sadly, when it got here to what they were actually wearing, there was a hell of numerous spandex on show. 

Where standard-sized, slim models strut down the catwalk in cute, well-cut tailoring, skimpy, form-fitting dresses, and garments that featured actual detailing – from embroidery, to sequins, to crystals – the larger girls, though still fierce AF, were largely left yanking down the hems of too-tight lycra minis that rose up towards their hips as they walked. Add to this the proven fact that most of the labels don’t actually offer sizes the models walking their shows would actually fit into, and it made for a rather disheartening affair. Copenhagen’s designers show great skill with regards to crafting clothes, so what’s so scary about sitting down and drafting out a correct pattern and stitching together a toile for an even bigger body?

Similarly pretty uninterested in the stretchy dress situation is Alva Claire. “I don’t think I’ve ever not worn a dress on the runway,” Claire reveals over dinner in Copenhagen, the night before she presents a latest collaborative collection designed in partnership with emerging label OpéraSPORT. Often there may be an expectation that larger and fat women must present as femininely as possible to change into palatable within the eyes of society. “That’s just not me!” she adds. “I like my vintage leather jackets with massive shoulders, masculine oversized shirts, and stuff like that. I don’t at all times need to look ‘pretty’, you recognize?”

A scroll through her Instagram and also you’ll see what she means. Tie-dye, semi-see-through ASAI dresses are layered over slinky flared trousers, bulky motocross jackets are matched with lace minis, and business-casual blazers are paired with pinstriped men’s shirts and slogan baby tees. Baggy dungarees meet baker boy hats, boxy denim jackets come along with leopard print leggings ripped straight from the 80s, and loose, hardcore leather pants are offset by barely-there string bikini tops. Her style is in every single place, within the best possible way. 

Her capsule collection, which got its debut at OpéraSPORT’s first ever runway show at CPHFW,  leans into this unique, eclectic approach to fashion, with Claire herself modelling a severe slate grey vegan leather coat, a clean logo-emblazoned tee, and a slouchy pair of black joggers. The look was more the sort of thing you’d see someone sloping as much as the Berghain queue in on a Sunday afternoon than the standard kaleidoscopic, Scandicore stuff normally prevalent across the Copenhagen catwalks, and felt all of the brisker for it – a palette cleanser between the saccharine brights and Nordic minimalism offered up by the likes of Ganni, Stine Goya, and Remain. Further looks included a slick boxy blazer and matching louche vegan leather trousers, retro panelled tracksuits, and curve-skimming rib-knit dresses. “I mainly just made the sort of clothes I desired to wear, it was great,” laughs Claire.  

Though she’s been modelling for one of the best a part of a decade, it’s only recently that fashion has really embraced Claire – most notably, when she made history walking alongside Jill Kortleve and Precious Lee on the SS21 Versace runway, because the three became the primary curve models ever to accomplish that. Since then, she’s appeared in a stellar Vogue Italia shoot with Paloma Elsesser and Ashley Graham, channelled the legendary Divine for Love, and scored herself starring roles in campaigns by the likes of Savage x Fenty, Ivy Park, and Collina Strada. Just as she was entering into her stride, nevertheless, disaster struck, with the model tripping and breaking her ankle late last 12 months. 

“Sometimes I do get pretty down when I believe how far fashion still has to go [in terms of inclusivity]. But you recognize, we have now to maintain talking about it, I even have to maintain talking about it, we have now to maintain putting pressure on the industry to get it to listen” – Alva Claire

Relegated to her bed to get well, the decision from OpéraSPORT “got here at the proper time”. Founded by Stephanie Gundelach and Awa Malina Stelter, the label is making a reputation for itself with its clean, minimalistic aesthetic shot through with flashes of eclecticism – think painterly, easy-breezy bowling shirts, cut-away tank tops, and staple knits subversified via inventive textures and colourways. Having previously worked with Kim Kardashian’s stylist Veneda Carter, the 2 were on the hunt for a second collaborator, and were struck by Claire from the off. 

“We’d loved her style for some time, and her whole attitude is amazing,” the designers reveal. “We were so excited when she desired to work with us.” With Claire given free reign to create whatever she wanted, the model started working with the Pritt Stick creating moodboards and sketches from her bed. “We didn’t actually meet throughout the entire process,” says Claire. “But like loads of people that connected in the course of the pandemic, as soon as we met one another in real life it was as if we’d known one another for ages.” 

The collaboration also marks a development for Gundelach and Stelter, as they extend their sizing range to incorporate clothing as much as a UK20 (previously it stopped at a UK16). It was something they’d been interested by for some time, they reveal, particularly as many men were logging on to the positioning and scooping up the limited XL shirts and tees before the women could get their hands on them. Will the duo be rolling out these larger sizes across the broader offering, I ask: “It’s something we’re doing, yes.” As ever, it’s great to see a small, emerging brand attempting to change into more inclusive – particularly given countless conglomerates with far more cash and resources still obstinately abstain from doing so – but for meaningful change to occur inside fashion, commitments have to be made. That Claire was given carte blanche to go wild is a step in the appropriate direction.

The problem of inclusivity is unsurprisingly near Claire’s heart, but something she still, like a lot of us within the industry who don’t fit its narrow beauty ideals, occasionally struggles with. “Sometimes I do get pretty down when I believe how far fashion still has to go,” she reveals. “But you recognize, we have now to maintain talking about it, I even have to maintain talking about it, we have now to maintain putting pressure on the industry to get it to listen. I’m so comfortable that brands like OpéraSPORT are attempting to change into more inclusive, and have loved a lot working with Awa and Stephanie who’ve been so open to every little thing I desired to do. It’s been an ideal experience.” Now, let’s keep it going.

Click through the gallery above to see OpéraSPORT’s SS23 collection, including looks from Claire’s collection, which drops in September.