Twiggy is wrong. Fashion is moving away from slimness

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. While this is admirable given that so many high street brands still refuse to accommodate plus-sizes, the 70-year-old’s comments on the luxury fashion market are all too telling, resorting to the age-old snobbery towards curvy models and their place on the runway. She said: “I don’t think the high fashion industry will ever go completely away from slimness but I think other parts of the industry have started to use different shapes and sizes, and I think they should.” This separation between high street and high fashion is emblematic of an antiquated attitude towards plus-sized women, one that implies that they should be hidden from view in the back of a catalogue, with no place on a catwalk or in designer clothing. This year at Paris fashion week, Chanel featured a plus-size model for the first time in a decade, while Fendi’s first ever plus-size models made fashion history during Milan fashion week. I can’t try that on because I’m not made like that… this is where you feel safe, right here at Savage.” Whether Twiggy likes it or not, high fashion has already started to stray from its reliance on slimness, and it will need to continue doing so to appeal to its growing Gen-Z audience, who now make up 40 per cent of the world’s purchasing power and, importantly, put social causes at the heart of their consumer needs.