ECA students develop clothes for different body shapes

For the first time ever in Britain, fashion students at the Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) have started designing clothes for a wide range of body shapes.

Whereas before students used only size 10 tailors' dummies in their lessons, a set of size 8 to 18 mannequins from leading mannequin specialist, Proportion UK, have been commisioned for use by the college.

The move is part of the All Walks Beyond the Catwalk campaign, founded by Caryn Franklin, Debra Bourne and Erin O’Connor, which promotes a more realistic approach to the representation of body shapes within the fashion industry. A spokesperson for the campaign said: “We want student fashion designers to be introduced to a realistic range of body shapes during their training process. Diversity can enhance craftmanship not impede it.”

Head of Fashion at ECA, Mal Burkinshaw, has been appointed the head of the 'Centre of Diversity', where they intend to research and develop new approaches in fashion education to include more emotionally aware and considerate practice.

"We support 'All Walks' in agreeing that the fashion industry currently has a very narrow approach to diversity of image. It’s the responsibility of fashion educators to teach our future fashion practitioners from designers to image-makers to become more aware of the emotional impact of their design and messaging through creative and exciting educational methods."

The move has also been praised by the government as the debate about the responsibility that the fashion industry has regarding eating disorders, such as anorexia, continues.

Government Minister for Equalities and Liberal Democrats Body Confidence Campaign founder Lynne Featherstone said: “Too many people feel pressurised to focus their energies on how they look. I want to shine a light on initiatives that celebrate a range of body images as diverse as the society we live in.

"It's been fantastic to be part of the launch of Centre for Diversity and to see in action the important part All Walks Beyond the Catwalk is playing in helping the fashion industry work with a more realistic range of body shapes."

'All Walks' are also keen to highlight the benefits that the adoption of truer representations of body-image could have on business profits, quoting on their website research that suggests an increase in spending on campaigns that include a more realistic image range of age, size and skin tone.

Bournemouth University and Southampton Solent University have also recently incorporated diversity of body-shape projects into their curriculum and more colleges are expected to follow.