Plus-size mannequins help fashion students make it big

Edinburgh College of Art has become the first fashion school in the UK to introduce size 18 mannequins to train the designers of the future.

With women becoming curvier and more comfortable with fuller figures, the ECA is joining the industry-backed All Walks Centre for Diversity project.

ECA students have already designed regular and plus-sized dresses for a variety of live models to be unveiled at the official campaign launch in London this week and the college will soon receive its new mannequins.

The All Walks founders, including TV presenter and fashion guru Caryn Franklin, hope the dummies will enable graduates to become more versatile and be able to cut clothes for all shapes and sizes.

Co-founder Debra Bourne told the Evening News: "People like John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, who both had stints in established Saville Row tailors, have worked in an environment where you have to be able to cut for whoever comes through the door, not just catwalk models.

"In many respects this is the highest form of fashion which requires one to learn these couture cutting skills.

"I think designers benefit from having to engage with that process.

"Although the catwalk model plays a role, this training (the All Walks campaign] ticks a lot of boxes, including commercial business sense.

"With many young designers, people cannot fit their arm into the armhole.

"This is not just anti-size zero. You're involving fashion designers with the very people who will design their clothes."

All Walks' spring campaign has already involved nine major fashion designers from Vivienne Westwood, Giles Deacon to Stella McCartney, and organisers hope the two-year plus-size mannequin project will capture young designers' imaginations.

Second-year ECA student Lauren Smith, 21, from Currie is among those looking forward to working with the plus-sized mannequins.

She said: "I think everyone on the course agrees this is a good method, especially because there aren't many people out there who are model-sized.

"For our show it was such an achievement to watch all of our ladies walk down the catwalk for the launch and see the clothes that have been designed for them.

"The biggest size mannequins we have at college is 14, and they're quite small, so 16 and 18 will be interesting and allow us to figure out how to tailor for the bigger sizes.

"Alexander McQueen and Mark Fast have caused quite a stir with their plus-sized models and I think have broken though the boundary to allow more of that style.

Mal Burkinshaw, who heads the ECA fashion course, said that linking students and real people was like "switching on a light".

"There has been a disconnection between fashion students and the person who'd be wearing their clothes, the consumer.

"Students really learnt that fashion was beyond the catwalk."