WHY IS THERE STILL NO DIVERSITY IN THE FASHION WORLD.

Hi! Long time no speak huh? I know I’ve completely abandoned my blog. And to be honest with you, it’s been something that I constantly feel guilty about. My blog is where it all started for me, it was my baby. I didn’t begin on instagram. It all began in 2012 on this little old blog, well when it was called “unwritten hollywood” I’ve made myself a promise to from now on to at least write one blog post a month, then we can go to weekly.

I miss writing, I miss venting, I miss just rambling and sharing all my likes and dislikes. Oh and of course discussing how pathetic my love life is. (yes I’m still going through it with all the waste of space men on tinder) So I pinky, pinky promise your girl is going to be boring you to death with rambles from now on! But I thought a good topic to come back with was a topic I’m very passionate about.

So Let’s jump in, DIVERSITY. It’s just that word that will make you judge a whole situation, image, location, event, campaign. Because if it doesn’t have diversity, is it right or wrong? “It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. These can be along. the dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.” Recently a campaign went live with a brand which got a lot of attend for not having enough diversity. I was apart of this campaign. I felt so proud to be apart of it, the brief was so up my street because being a size 16/18 and being asked to be apart of such a huge campaign was a big opportunity for me. But also because I know I’d never get to be apart of a campaign with many other brands because of my size.

The campaign was a flop. The brand decided to use a number of influencers which were still labeled under the straight size category. It was so disappointing to have so much hope and passion for this campaign being apart of it myself, for it to all go pretty tits up. So I questioned why are even well known plus size brands still afraid to show anyone over the size of a 18 in campaigns? Most of my direct messages and comments on my instagram are always from girls who say they relate to me because they’re a “similar size, same size” as me. And that because they’ve seen the clothing on me they related more and felt more confident to buy the clothes. These messages and comments are what melt my heart to most. And girl that takes the time to message me about sizes or anything to do with buying from a brand I have the time for because, girl I know the struggle.

So Why is there still no diversity in the fashion world? Getting a repost on instagram can honestly change someones life. If I was to get a repost from say Primark, I know too well I’d be over 10k now. In which I could then charge more for my rates, have the swipe up, use affiliate links for more dolla, and gain a lot more collaborations. For a little mid blog post task, go on a brands instagram now and tell me if all the people/models shown are below a size 18 or if anyone shown is a 18. I’ve just done this on a number of my favourite brands, and only one brand showed a larger girl. Oh and you know what it was a make up look…not even about her outfit. This makes me so sad that still brands aren’t showing real bodies and girls who wear and keep the brands afloat on their feeds!

It’s also come to my attention recently that it’s the same old influencers on brands pages. They get the reposts, they get the campaign ads, they go on the press trips. But I have to ask. Yes an influencer may of increased sales on a certain trend or item. But will this really work for every item? I want to see a mix of girls wearing the garments of a brand. Not the same old influencer who is a size 8/10 but is all for body positively despite the fact she has no struggle finding clothes on the high street.

With all this being said. I’ve recently been having some reposts from a brand. And I’ve been so bloody proud of these, as it’s been a goal of mine. With these reposts came a lot of negative though. I was gutted, and heartbroken to read so many comments from women on my body shape. You know straight up saying my belly looked like a ass because apparently my trousers were too tight. Comments like these really affected me. My main anger and upset was how much we have asked or brands to share girls of all sizes. A brand does this. Comments like that appear. I’ve never before this had any negative comments on my weight or size.

It was honestly disgusting to read so many women comment on my body and not care for my feelings or how it would affect me. Did they affect me? yes, I ended up returning the trousers and to be honest I’ve not wanted to shoot as much since the comments. I feel like my body image has been damaged and I no longer look in the mirror and feel confident because of them comments. Something I want you to take away from this post even if you don’t care for diversity that much, just to be kind and watch what you say even if it isn’t direct and it’s just a facebook comment.

If you’re a reader from instagram you’ll know I started the hashtag #anysizestyle A hashtag for girls to use, to share their outfits daily and to feel like no matter their, size, skin colour, or religion they were stylish. I’m so proud to see now that their are over 4k tags on that hashtag, and daily I’m getting notifications of girls tagging the page.

So with my experiences and from what I’ve seen from brands, I get it. I see why it’s a big deal to post a bigger girl, a not as good looking girl to your feed. it could be brand damaging right? You want the clothes to look good and sell. But on the other hand, I beg brands to show a range of sizes to make this more of a normality.