Can Fashion Be Inclusive?

Is there any real room in the fashion business for inclusivity?

• “Inclusivity” is an increasingly vague and often misused concept - and perhaps this is particularly the case in the world of fashion.
• Big brands are keen to underline their inclusivity credentials, but are the intricate luxury designs of fashion houses and a more inclusive approach to the art of dressing not mutually exclusive?
• It depends how inclusivity is defined: while some designers have sent older and curvier models down the catwalk in recent years, the industry’s beauty ideal remains fairly stubborn.
• Inclusivity can also mean diversity in recruitment - in the design process and commercial marketing, an area where some progress has been made, while many however say not enough has been done.
• In the eyes of some, inclusivity begins with fair pay and workers’ rights - which is potentially achievable but not really aggressively pursued in practice.
• There is fashion’s attempt to be more welcoming towards disabled customers, captured by the new promise of so-called adaptive fashion to revolutionise fashion for people with disabilities.
• We have rounded up some reading material on the many things still standing in the way of a more inclusive fashion world - and some of the progress on that front.