Ashley Graham Modeled for Dolce & Gabbanna, Despite Its History of Fat-Shaming

This past weekend was Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda Fashion show—A.K.A. a highlight of the year. After Friday was dedicated to jewelry and Saturday devoted to the Sartoria menswear show, it was time for the finale on Sunday. Instead of taking center stage, the brand showed over 100 looks in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera lobby—a place that holds special memories for founders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.

The show was grand with elaborate dresses, headpieces, a dinner on the stage of the Met, and a firework show after. Since I live right next to the Met Opera, I felt like I was being teased the whole time knowing I could not run across and see stars like Naomi Campbell, Karlie Kloss, and Ashley Graham. So, I settled for ogling over the countless Instagram pictures and videos.

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But I couldn’t help but feel a little disconcerted that outward body=positive models like Graham and Alessandra Garcia Lorido were walking the runway after D&G’s long history of fat-shaming. A Revelist article expressed the same concerns I was having, and it has caused me to wonder: Does the fashion industry truly care about body positivity and diversity? Or just selling their clothes?

Source: Instagram Source: Instagram

According to The Fashion Spot report, this past NYFW featured 37.3 percent models of color, which is up about 0.4 percent from the year prior. If you can somehow put your hands together for that monumental progress, stop, because plus-size model appearances dropped from 34 appearances on nine runways in 2017 to 26 appearances on eight runways.

D&G’s Fall 2018 Ready-to-Wear collection didn’t feature any plus-size models. But this time around, for a couture collection based in New York City instead of Italy, D&G thought it appropriate to enlist models with bodies they once poked fun at.

MORE: Ashley Graham Is Worried That Her Size Will Be Another ‘Fashion Trend’

The biggest scandal was in their Fall/Winter 2017 collection over a pair of shoes that had the words “thin and gorgeous” inscribed on the outside. Unurprisingly, people slammed the designers, but Stefano showed his true colors when he stood by the words. He replied to comments on Instagram with “darling you prefer to be fat and full of cholesterol ??? I think u have a problem” and “u think is better to be fat full of hamburger??? Stupid.”

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Only a few months prior, Stefano again saw himself in hot water after body-shaming Lady Gaga during her Super Bowl LI halftime show. He quickly apologized and posted a photo of Gaga on his Instagram with the caption, “I know it’s strange, but finally something real not retouched! The truth, reality. Yesterday I criticized it too, but I though [sic] about it and I was wrong!!!” Although he apologized about this one, the shoes and the video he made after (see below) still exhibit little remorse.

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Along from lacking in body-positivity, the brand has never apologized for creating racist “mammy” earrings in 2012. Likewise, Muslim women felt like D&G’s 2016 hijab line was only a way to make money (since Muslim people spend about $226 billion on luxury goods in one year).

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It might look like the brand is making strides to change their opinions based off of this show, but it’s hard to believe it. The fashion industry has a long history with race and body type, which is why we’ve been championing change for so long. And even though people may say “motive doesn’t matter in this case, they’re still displaying different bodies and races!,” it does. By overtly marketing non-white races and plus-size models as different from a “normal” model, we’re still furthering that white and skinny is the “normal” model.

At this point, we just hope brands stick to practicing what they preach (or changing what they preach), and that body-positive models like Graham and Lorido stick to their guns about not making body-positivity a trend (which means choosing who you walk for wisely or making a statement about why you’re doing it).