Today the average woman is a size 16 and models reflect less than 5% of society. Yet one reason I avoided fashion for so long was because I felt I wouldn’t fit in. It is meant to be inclusive, creative, and fun, nobody should miss the joy fashion brings because they feel rejected.
Maybe it was a precocious start at Valentino, in the early eighties where, shocked by the masochistic narcissism of those she dressed, Helen Storey began an altogether more noble questioning of what fashion can do when it puts its mind to it.
In an industry known for beautiful people, idolised style setters and slavish interns, ‘human’ is not a word often heard in fashion. But Fabian Hirose has never been blinded by the glamour
“There is a suggestion that there is a certain kind of look that is more desirable,” say’s Thandie Newton talking about her latest venture with longtime All Walks supporter and internationally renowned make-up artist, Kay Montano, “I find that frustrating.”
When Susie Orbach’s book Bodies was published – All Walks had not yet formed, that doesn’t stop us from recommending it to the fashion students we reach in our lectures. Here’s another corker on our list. What Should We Tell Our Daughters? The Pleasures and the Pressures of Growing up Female by Melissa Benn [...]
There’s nothing quite like passing through security to give an event a sense of importance. Body detectors and scanners can’t fail to add gravitas. But aside from general bits and bobs, all I had in my bag for the Bodies in Education event at Portcullis House were a notebook and pen. They was put to [...]
The need to be confident in the workplace goes without saying, but how much can it be said that our appearance contributes to our sense of confidence, even to our ability to focus on getting the job done? Total Jobs recently held an online Twitter Party - the ultimate twenty-first century get together - hosted [...]
Do fashion illustrators have the power to influence with exciting, empowering designs for the body or are they stuck in a rut - churning out toxic, body-dysmorphic images or sexual cartoons? This week’s academic blog, written by Carol Ryder, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Design at Liverpool John Moores University ponders just that. How can we equate the emaciated, [...]
Of all the organisations we regularly meet with, Body Gossip run by actor Ruth Rogers and body image commentator Natasha Devon are the most talkative. In fact they never stop spouting off….Good Women!
Sifting through student feedback from All Walks Lectures over the holiday, Fi Anderson, a recent All Walks intern from London College of Fashion, shares her thoughts.
At the Better Lives seminar last night hosted by Psychologist Carolyn Mair at London College of Fashion, I gave a talk - the usual stuff…All Walks and our belief that people working in Fashion could begin to understand the psychological impact our industry capable of making. I argued that YES Design, Product and Fashion messaging [...]
How is disability seen by our industry? Alexander McQueen offered commentary on this, so have students who entered our Diversity NOW! competition. What are your thoughts?