Inclusivity: seven bold steps by brands making fashion more progressive

We live in a global culture that increasingly challenges traditional beauty ideals, pushes boundaries and blurs colour, creed, body size, ethnicity and gender lines defining separations. Though a bit slow to catch on, mainstream fashion is finally jumping on the bandwagon with brands, retailers, designers and other decision makers changing collections, sizes and categories to become more inclusive, discovering diverse and unique individuals as well as groups of shamed and excluded communities as new consumers and encouraging them to be proud of who they are. FashionUnited has put together seven such progressive steps towards more inclusivity.

1. Women’s plus-size activewear: To celebrate size inclusivity and invest in plus-size ranges, more and more brands are joining the bandwagon in the activewear market. Nike was praised for introducing a plus-size mannequin to 'celebrate the diversity and inclusivity of sport'; Vitality launched the 'Celebrate You' campaign; the Girlfriend Collective dedicated to sustainability has become more size inclusive; Beyond Yoga tests its garments on real women, including their staff, and K.Deer offers activewear in sizes XS to 4XL.
What women's plus activewear looks like today

2. Adaptive wear for the differently abled: There is a substantial population with a variety of disabilities who so far had been ignored by the fashion industry. But that is changing: To allow for mainstream adaptive wear and to make the fashion industry more inclusive to those with disabilities, various individuals have come forward to make a difference: Mindy Scheier founded the Runway of Dreams Organization, Lucy Jones founded Ffora and Sinéad Burke let casts of her body be taken for making the world’s first little person mannequin.
Adaptive wear the new activewear, still an untapped market

3. Size extension: Designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana expressed that it came natural to them to extend the sizes of some clothes of their collections as a tribute to women of all body shapes and to beauty in its entirety, becoming the first luxury fashion house to extend its size range to 20 in the US, 22 in the UK and 54 in Europe.
Dolce & Gabbana becomes the first luxury fashion house to extend sizes

4. Gender fluidity: London-based Serena Rees, founder of luxury lingerie label Agent Provocateur, aims to challenge gender norms with Les Girls Les Boys. The brand encourages diverse and cross-cultural mindsets pushing for fluidity. The brand has opened a New York office to gear itself up for the American market.
British Brand Les Girls Les Boys is coming for the US with inclusivity

5. New sizes: Universal Standard's have set out to change everything by creating unprecedented access, making size irrelevant, representing all of the US, and to establish a 'new normal' for future generations. It will now offer all sizes between 00 and 40 across all products.
Universal Standard extends sizing to 00-40

6. Inclusivity in footwear: Women's accessory brand Loeffler Randall decided to expand sizing in response to customer demand for sizes outside of the available range, thus bringing size inclusivity into the footwear market.
Loeffler Randall extends sizing and launches bridal line

7. LGBTI rights: Primark partnered with ILGA World, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, for its ‘Feeling Proud’ collection, which is all about diversity and inclusivity. The Irish discounter also pledged a generous donation to provide direct support and resources for their 1500+ LGBTI member organisations in over 150 countries.
Primark and IGLA World announce partnership

Stay tuned for further updates on new inclusivity designs and trends in the fashion world.

Photos: Nike Town London courtesy of Nike; Primark