While appearing at Good American’s open casting call event at The Row in Los Angeles on Saturday, 20 January Ashley Graham told PEOPLE that she still faces resistance from some designers when she asks them to make clothes for her. “There’s still some designers that have said, ‘Sorry, we can’t, we’re just not going to design something for a bigger body,'” she said. “Things have changed immensely in some ways and just have had a full stop in others,” Graham continued. “And that is why I’m not going to stop talking about my body and dressing people of larger sizes because it’s not a norm yet.”
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Ashley Graham says Fashion Designers turn down making clothes for her
Ashley Graham, 36, explains that designers often want to create clothes for her, especially for newer brands. Still, the current industry structure makes creating flattering clothing for people with larger bodies more expensive. The renowned model admits to occasionally paying for extra fabric herself, for designers who may not have the financial means to create an outfit for her.
“That’s not a negative thing by any means, but it still is just where we are in society,” Graham told PEOPLE. She further explained that the grading system, or the way the cost of fabric is determined, is a big factor for women with larger bodies in the fashion industry. A lot of the industry’s infrastructure just isn’t set up to accommodate plus-size women. “If you look at the runways, not much has changed,” she continued. “If you look at designers, some of them are dressing different types of bodies, but it’s not the norm.”
Graham said that while some magazines and media outlets are featuring bigger bodies more regularly, “it’s been this tiny crawl.” In her opinion, the designers are missing out on a lot of money by refusing to dress people, specifically women, who are size 12 and larger. She cited Good American co-founder Emma Emma Grede as one of the only designers providing clothes for that demographic.
“Is it fatphobia? Is it that they’re scared to look like they have fallen into commercialism? Is it because they don’t have the capability to be able to understand what true grading is on different types of bodies when it comes to breast, belly, butt cellulite? I don’t know,” Graham said, reflecting on the issue.
