Fashion Students Petition for Plus-Size Mannequins – And Win
A petition may help bring more mannequins like the one on the right to the Parsons School of Design. (Photo: Getty)
UPDATE: Success! Nayyara Chue’s efforts have made an impact and now, Parsons students interested in creating clothes for plus size women have the option to do so. “As of today we have succeeded the purpose of this petition!” she wrote on the online petition’s page. “The issue has been resolved and students at parsons are able to use plus sized mannequins to create designs! This was just the first step towards reaching the ultimate goal of a more body positive fashion industry.”
The average American woman is a size 14, but you wouldn’t know it if you looked at the mannequins at New York City’s Parsons School of Design. Nayyara Chue, a bridal fashion design student at the school, is looking to change that. Chue started an online petition urging Parsons to provide its students with more plus-size mannequins.
“It has come to my attention that there is currently only one plus-size mannequin at Parsons, while there are approximately one thousand students focusing on fashion design attending at the moment,” the petition reads. “It is preposterous that several students can’t execute their plus-size specialties at the school, even more so when the resources aren’t readily available to us. In addition, a mannequin costs circa 300-400 $US and isn’t economically accessible to everyone within the school.”
Runway Riot notes that Chue, who mentions she is herself a plus-size designer, had to create her own plus-size mannequin out of duct tape, which, considering the Parsons reputation as one of the fashion schools, seems unacceptable. If the school is incubating the next generation of great designers, especially in a country where most people fall into the plus-size range, then the students should have practice and experience designing for larger bodies — period. “Installing more plus-size mannequins in our classrooms would open a lot of doors to emerging designers who believe in sizes higher than 8,” Chue wrote in the petition.
So far, Chue’s petition has around 3,838 signatures — she originally set a goal of about 200. Seems like her message calling for inclusivity is resonating beyond the walls of Parsons.
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