Fall 2025 Fashion Trends Embrace Curves—Runway Casting Is Another Story
According to a new study, fashion week has never been less inclusive.
Designers seemed to swear off straight-and-narrow silhouettes on the fall 2025 runways. Alaïa kicked off Paris Fashion Week with tubular hooded dresses and undulating skirts inspired by sculptor Mark Manders. Both Sarah Burton's Givenchy debut exploring "everything about the modern woman" and Anthony Vaccarello's stripped-back Saint Laurent show embraced tailoring with exaggerated shoulders—to contrast a steeply inverted parabola of a waist. And at Miu Miu, Miuccia Prada made a declaration to accompany her bullet bras and curved-shoulder suits: "The identification of the feminine is synonymous with the curve."
While that ethos wrapped models in sinuous dresses and amped-up power suiting, it didn't bring curves to the casting itself. Runways all season long were devoid of mid- or plus-size models—so much so that it became a daily complaint in my fashion editor group chat. Vogue Business confirmed what we all saw. A semi-annual size-inclusivity study released on March 17 reported that only 0.3 percent of the total looks shown across the major markets (New York, London, Milan, and Paris) were plus-size. That's an even steeper decline from last season when 0.8 percent of looks appeared on plus-size models.
Alaïa's latest runway presented "clothes like kinetic sculpture," with skirts that jutted outward from the models' bodies.
At Schiaparelli, this season's cinched-in blazers with oversize shoulders replaced trompe l'oeil curve dresses from runways past.
The juxtaposition reminded fashion editors like me and casual runway fans how fashion truly perceives curves—the ones made of flesh and blood rather than artfully draped fabric. While exaggerated bustles or shoulders extending into open air are fashion shorthand for empowerment and confidence, a trompe l'oeil dress with an hourglass figure or a mini skirt whose waistband hovers a few inches away from the model's body is actually a sleight of hand to appear even smaller. The mantra "Take up space!" once again applies just to clothes, not diverse body shapes.
In show notes, curvaceous designs were positioned to channel "the power of femininity," as Miu Miu put it. But with an all-time low for plus-size model representation, the curves trending on the runways are manufactured. The 97.7 percent of straight-size models can change their shape at will, trying on bigger hips or more exaggerated waists. However, women whose shapes inspired those curves can't participate—or aren't welcomed to—without designers making their pieces in little other than a sample size. The clothes say one thing, and the casting says the opposite.
At Sarah Burton's Givenchy debut, coat and blazer shoulders curved away from the body—and waists were notably cinched inward.
Miuccia Prada's two brands, Prada (left) and Miu Miu (right) thought about "the rapport between body and dress," per show notes—and did so with straight-size models only.
Designers don't have to choose between sharing a message with their whole chest and tapping an inclusive cast to display it. Just ask Hermès, the only Paris Fashion Week participant to include a plus-size model on the runway, per Vogue Business. What's holding others back when they proclaim to champion, value, and be inspired by curves—or women in general? I'd love to know.
According to a study by Vogue Business, Hermès was the only designer who included a plus-size model on the runway this season.
This season has partly served as a warm-up for next September when radical top-down changes are coming to some of the industry's most notable names. Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Chanel, Loewe, and Dior are all set to welcome new creative directors (even if they haven't been announced yet)—talents expected to transform the entire appearance of the brands they oversee. It's a moment when the histories of these labels are being rewritten in real-time, as fresh voices take the familiar DNA and spin it into something new.
Once the dust settles, I hope these new designers can assess the numbers, see their runway models envisioned in reality, and finally thread the size-inclusivity needle. Alaïa's creative director, Pieter Mulier, described his latest lineup as "clothes designed to reflect the topography of the female form through curves and padding." But honestly, it's time for runways to do more than merely mirror a single ideal of women's bodies. Let's reimagine fashion week as a platform that honors every woman's form.
