"Medium size" is trending on social media, breaking new ground on the topic of body inclusion. Why is the term "medium size" significant

"I've had problems with sizing" is an understatement. I have a wide range of sizes, so I have a lot of tailors on speed dial, and some deep-seated deformities.

You can imagine how happy I was to notice that women with similar size issues and similar body shapes like me were increasingly appearing on the platform.

I've seen "body love" crusaders in my feed, and women of these sizes make up a small percentage; And compared to the standard size fashion influencers, they are the majority. In short, people my size, people with similar sorrows to me, were tagged with a term I'd never seen either: "medium size."

The average British and European woman is a UK size 16, or Euro size 44. Yet medium size women are the silent majority: less than 20% of clothing is made for them, and they are rarely seen in the fashion industry or the media.

"I'm definitely medium," says Raeann Langas, a medium size model and body activist who lives in Los Angeles. Her shopable Instagram posts are tagged With brands such as Reformation, With Jean and Girlfriend Collective. "For example, the maximum size of the straight code in the Reformation is only 12 in the US (14 in the UK, 42 in the Euro).

Some I could wear, but some were too small - and then the size went straight to plus size, which was too big. So, many brands have a huge gap in the size watch."

California-based medium size model Ali Tate, who now lives in Texas, began her modeling career as a size 10 teenager while studying in London. Tate, who loves brands such as Agolde, Rails, Staud and Orseund Iris, echoed Langas's experience, telling us: "I'm generally not a good size, and to get a job, [medium size models] either have to lose weight or gain weight." It's funny how fashion is always pulled to two extremes, because most of my friends have the same body type as me, but they never see it in pictures. ' A size 6 model "doesn't look like me at all," she explained. "Plus size is a little clearer, but it still doesn't reflect my body shape or size."

Tate added: "There's definitely a struggle for women who are size 16 and up. But when it comes to inclusion, don't leave medium size women behind. We need to see the full picture of humanity. I was a size 10 and struggled with eating disorders and body issues. There are people who still struggle with these issues, even medium size people."

Karina Marriott, a British mid-size stylist, also realised that if she walked into a straight-size clothing store and found her size, she was being treated to a premium. She said: "Medium size shouldn't be separated from plus-size people, I don't know where I belong - I'm not slim and I'm not plus-size. Medium size would be a very useful term for finding women of a similar size or body type to me."

A truly effective sizing system

Despite all the efforts made by catwalks in recent years to make sizes more diverse, the number of plus-size models in the Fall/Winter 2021 shows is on the decline, with only 19 plus-size models in the Fall/Winter 21 shows, compared to the all-time high of 86 plus-size models in spring/summer 2020. "Luxury ready-to-wear brands used to have this strange idea that design and concept were more important than comfort, whether you were a sample size, a straight size or something else," says Vanja Hedberg, who worked at Margiela, Lanvin and Balenciaga and is now director of fashion design at the French Institute of Fashion in Paris.

Most of the sizes sold in stores are derived from those designed for the show, and Hedberg explains how this works: During the "standardisation" process, these sizes are adjusted to a standardised Euro size 38 or 40, which serves as the basis for up and down sizes. "You can't just take a model and make it bigger because the proportions change," she said. This is a process that requires fine adjustment and complex calculation, and has established an industrial system. So maybe we need to make a deeper change in design, to put more love into the female experience and the female body."

However, some designers have begun to develop innovative solutions to provide women with clothing that fits their true size. In 2018, New York-based Chromat, founded by Becca McCharen-Tran, overhauled its profile and size structure.

In preparation for the launch of the new line up to size XXXL, Chromat held a four-day open sizing event where more than 500 women of all sizes could find the right size. Lois Opoku, a business information technology student and medium fashion influencer now living in Berlin, thinks McCharen-Tran's approach is the future. She laughs: "Designers and brands should look at women's data - maybe it's my tech experience that makes me think that. "You've seen what people are like on the street, but to take a sizing system that still doesn't fit the society, the target group of women who buy clothes, is really hard to understand."

True Fit, a data-driven personalization platform that works with retailers such as Levi's, Ralph Lauren and Ugg, has collected data from nearly 200 million people in the US, UK and Europe to develop the Fashion Genome, the most comprehensive dataset in the footwear and apparel industry.

A True Fit representative said: "In general, when we talk to our customers, they see an increase in the size range, and some customers begin to blur the line between standard and plus size." Their findings suggest that brands have begun to think about sizing on a broad continuum, rather than breaking it down into rigid categories like "standard" and "large."

For Tate, there have been encouraging results and a bright future is just around the corner. "I have to admit, even in the 10 years I've been in the business, we've come a long way - plus-size models on the covers of big magazines, plus-size cuts and plus-size fashion - something that didn't exist when I started. As with everything else, there's always the possibility of more. Once I figured that out, I became very positive."