As Tom Rasmussen wrote of their recent ode to London Fashion Week’s wild creativity and unmatched vibes, good fashion must have the ability to maneuver you, and I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so moved by a show than Karoline Vitto’s debut at Fashion East yesterday. The tears began coming once I sat down to put in writing her show notes just a little under per week ago, and ended backstage with a congratulatory hug with the Brazilian designer. Don’t think this was a classy, elegant teardrop rolling down my cheek in a dignified manner – this was face screwed up, “I believe I’m going to must go outside” style sobs. A fashion person? Showing feelings? Embarrassing!

In case you’re not acquainted with her work, a little bit of background. Vitto grew up in Brazil, and, given the country’s narrow ideals of beauty, she was hyperconscious of her body from a young age. Things shifted when she moved to London to review fashion at Central Saint Martins. The designer began to strip off and take mirror selfies during which she contorted herself in order to create folds and creases across her body. This became an integral a part of her design practice: using moulded metal frames, Vitto began to highlight the squishy bits we’ve been conditioned to hate as things of beauty, and turned them right into a series of sensual vignettes. 

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, Vitto has been hammering away at her label, largely custom-making slinky dresses, pencil skirts, and barely-there cut-out tops bearing these unique steel inserts. SS23 marked her first, fully-realised collection under Lulu Kennedy and Raphaelle Moore’s watchful eye, nonetheless, and, beyond being completely stunning, her debut show under the Fashion East umbrella felt like a really seismic moment for the style industry, as she sent her clothes out on a forged entirely made up of ‘curve’ models. 

Though there’s still a great deal of work to be done, across the course of the previous couple of years, the industry has made an enormous amount of progress when it comes to racial and gender diversity, but in relation to size representation, fashion is reluctant to make changes. Seeing curve models on the runway continues to be a rarity, with those forged often feeling tokenistic and box-ticking versus a real commitment to creating change and catering to an enormous community of fashion lovers with money to spend. Being a fat woman working in fashion is tough: not only do you could have to take a seat through countless shows during which nobody looks remotely such as you, the reasons you need to take heed to from brands and designers that refuse to incorporate models with bodies that transcend sample size, or create clothes above a UK size 12 or 14 are truly exhausting. 

Yet here’s a young designer, with limited resources, who proved that, while it’s not without its difficulties, it’s really not as hard as fashion makes it seem. With casting by Maddie Østlie, not a single member of the model forged was under a size ten, and ranged all the way in which as much as a size 22. And while they looked powerful, and assured, and fierce – and all those hyperbolic terms used to explain fat women taking on their rightful space – in the gathering’s skimpy-but-supportive bikinis, dramatic floor-sweeping gowns, and languid, loose-legged trousers, in addition they just looked completely fab and normal. Like they’d been there all along. 

Often when I am going to showroom appointments or collection re-sees, I ask if the brand has plans to expand its size range, or forged larger models in its shows. I normally feel like I’m considered having a vested interest on this area, that I’m demanding fashion caters to me. And while, yes, I’d love to slide into clothes by a few of my fave designers, despite the very fact they’ve deemed me an undesirable customer, I’m more concerned that a rising generation of girls see themselves represented on the runway, and don’t fall into the trap of hating their bodies in the identical way that Vitto and I once did. 

The fact is that this conversation expands far beyond just the fat people working in fashion. When Precious Lee walks out at shows – like at Versace AW22, for instance – phones shoot as much as the sounds of gasps and whoops. If Paloma Elsesser features on a model line-up, you may guarantee you’re going to listen to a bunch of attendees discussing how hot she looked while piling out of the venue. On day one in every of London Fashion Week SS23, there have been some truly fab shows: like KNWLS, and Chopova Lowena’s insanely sensible runway debut. But as people settled into hotel lobbies to bash out reviews, file reports, and catch up over coffee and wine, conversation kept coming back to Vitto and the way blown away everyone was by what she did – and that, I believe, says all of it. As Jeanie-Annan Lewin so succinctly put it: “Protect Karoline Vitto in any respect costs.”