Flowing lines, pastel shades and flowery spring motifs may have been the highlight of the Half Full Curve collection presented at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer Resort Collection, but that is not what drew every eye at the event. What held everyone’s attention were the models themselves — from 19-year-old model Meghna Gupta to 81-year-old Asha Chopra. Each woman — irrespective or age, skin colour or size — walked down the ramp with panache shown by professionals, giving the audience something more to mull over than just cut and colour.
Flushed with the success of her show, Rixi Bhatia, founder of Half Full Curve, the brand behind the fashion show, says that they wish to promote a fashion trend where one is not limited by age, body type or skin colour. “We are a body positive entity. We believe that whatever the body type, size, skin colour, you are gorgeous the way you are,” she exclaims.
The market for plus size women’s clothing is usually rather drab, with silhouettes hiding the body rather than flaunting it. “We’re saying don’t do that — show off your body, show off your curves! Our entire collection is targeted to accentuate the curves in the right places. We have worked with 20 real women of all ages, sizes, skin colours, professions, and they were so supportive of the concept,” she says.
Looking like an angel in blue, Asha, who had a blast walking down the ramp, reveals that she is quite impressed with how far fashion has come. “Fashion is definitely more inclusive and much more diverse than it used to be. In my time, there was the same type of dress for everyone, maybe the colour or a pattern would change, but that was it. Nowadays, there’s no limit,” she smiles.
Meghna, who felt as though the whole experience of walking the ramp was absolutely surreal, adds that this will give other young girls some much-needed confidence. “A walk like this will have a major impact, especially on young girls like me, because seeing someone there who is your skin colour, who is your size — it’s extremely motivating and reassuring. You’re not flooded with a particular cookie-cutter shape. So someone in the audience sees us and thinks ‘if she can do it so can I’. Even if you’re not walking the ramp, you have a sense of confidence when you walk out,” she explains.
Fashion designer Anupama Dayal, who commends the diverse fashion show, adding that inclusive fashion, is the need of the hour. “I applaud inclusivity of any sort. And the fact that they have models of all ages walking the ramp is a lovely initiative because age is something that every women worries about,” she explains, adding, “I believe that you only gain elegance and confidence as you grow older. There are so many older women that I can think of off the top of my head who are beautiful, elegant and fashionable. Indeed, I believe that I am more confident in my own fashion statement today than I was when I was, say, 18 years old.”
Fifty-year-old model, Anuradha P. Dhawan, who advocates fashion for all, says that the impact of such a show will be more for the younger generations. “Of course, there will also be an impact for women in their middle age or older. But young women can look at these women as they walk down the ramp and realise that age has nothing to do with fashion. I have always believed that grace, elegance and confidence only grows with age, so the more there are fashion walks like this at mainstream fashion events, the better,” she says.
Fashion comes with a certain level of responsibility; and inclusivity is just one way of showing it, adds Anupama.
“It takes shows like these to remind women that they are beautiful and to just make them feel happy in their skins,” she concludes.
