New Models for New Designers
Edinburgh College of Art has become the first fashion school in the UK to introduce size 18 mannequins to their fashion course.
The college’s move is part of the industry-backed All Walks Centre for Diversity project, which has already involved a number of major fashion designers in its spring campaign.
Both the founders of All Walks and the college’s instructors maintain that properly trained fashion students should be able to cut clothes for anyone, not just runway models. “There has been a disconnection between fashion students and the person who’d be wearing their clothes, the consumer,” says Mal Burkinshaw, head of the ECA fashion course told the Edinburgh Evening News.
Students also welcome the change. “I think everyone on the course agrees this is a good method,” says second-year ECA student Lauren Smith, 21,”especially because there aren’t many people out there who are model-sized.”