Sinéad O’Dwyer: Why luxury fashion must embrace size inclusivity

London-based Irish fashion designer Sinead O’Dwyer has long eschewed the standard sample sizes used in the luxury fashion industry. She uses the moulded silicone body casts from her degree collection as a starting point for her innovative, inclusive and undeniably sexy tailored and stretch pieces, as well as working from a series of sample sizes to produce a collection from size 6 to 30. Her SS24 collection, Assembly, is stocked by illustrious retailers such as SSense and Browns, and her Squiggle and Shibari pieces are available for the first time at cult fashion destination Dover Street Market.

The daughter of master silversmith Kevin O’Dwyer and classical musician Adele O’Dwyer, the designer studied fashion at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem – alumni of which include Iris van Herpen, and Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren of Viktor & Rolf fame. She then spent time in the US before embarking on the MA Fashion programme at the Royal College of Art in London headed by Zowie Broach.

“I was not sure I wanted to participate in the industry because there were things that didn’t really sit right with me. I had heard a lot about Zowie Broach – a very interesting person in terms of the intersection of art and fashion and her own brand Boudicca,” says O’Dwyer. “Her vision is more about what you want to contribute to the industry than about graduating with a particular type of collection. I wanted to figure out what it was that fashion meant to me and how to participate in the industry in a way that felt meaningful.”

During this time, O’Dwyer began to consider her own relationship with clothing as well as that of friends and family. “Normal people, who don’t work in fashion, don’t know that there has to be a decision made about the type of body being pattern cut for – the idea that there is a type of body, that may not be yours, taken as the beginning point or inspiration for a design or for how the garment will fit.”

Preoccupied with a system that results in people thinking that their bodies are the problem, rather than that a garment wasn’t made with their body in mind, O’Dwyer began to make the silicone body casts of her friend, model and muse Jade O’Belle that became synonymous with her early work – the notion that “when you wear a garment, you are wearing the body of another in some abstract way”.

She still uses these body casts to inform many of her silhouettes. “I am trying to distance myself from the standardised rules we learned about making patterns for the female body and start with my own version of things based on real bodies that I have life-cast.”

Suiting and tailoring are of particular interest. “The only reason those silhouettes haven’t been rethought for a curvier body is because the focus has been on sample sizes, and the male gaze, and male designers have been at the forefront for so long. The work just hasn’t been done to make those patterns [that look good on straighter bodies] for a bigger range of bodies – so it is about unlearning how we look at, and perceive, different bodies in the luxury fashion sector.”

O’Dwyer is tackling this challenging task by using several different sample sizes to achieve a much broader range of sizes than is typical in luxury fashion, but also, crucially, to produce clothes that look good on larger bodies because they have been specifically designed for those bodies rather than made by grading up a pattern designed for a much smaller body.

Her shirts and jackets (often inspired by her sister – professional violinist Aoise O’Dwyer) feature cup details that celebrate the wearer’s form without having cleavage on show or without fitted shapes. Meanwhile, a twist on masculine tailoring sees a necktie detail split to form a criss-cross bodice that accentuates the bust. “A lot of the shirts I do were designed on a size 18, so they look good on a smaller size, but they look especially good on the sample size that I developed them on because that was the original design intention,” she says.

Being able to consider such things is, she says, an inspiring position to be in and one which might not be possible without the industry disruptors that came before her. “There are curve models who have been working for many years to try to have a voice in the modelling industry – people like Paloma Elsesser and Ashley Graham who have been creating that space. People respect them and they are deemed ‘worthy’ of luxury and it kind of trickles down and people’s ideas change.”

Look at O’Dwyer’s social media posts and it’s clear that even people who can’t afford her clothes are buoyed by her efforts to diversify fashion – whether that is through the diverse casting of models, often with casting director Emma Matell, or by working with charities such as Anna Cofone’s Hair & Care to invite blind and low vision women to experience her show through touch and audio description.

It is refreshing too, to see such sexy clothing on bodies that are not normally portrayed as sexy in mainstream media. “My size range for the runway is 6 to 30 which means we can cast a wide range of people – although sometimes there are accessibility considerations depending on the space. It is really amazing that we have the opportunity to show such a diversity of people in that world, and yes, my clothing is very sexy.

“It changes how you see yourself if you see a broader range of body shapes wearing luxury. Everyone wants to feel represented – you can feel more accepting towards different types of people and differences in yourself whereas generally, the luxury industry is not that… it is the converse – you are surrounded by one type of person, and you feel uncomfortable.”

It’s an expensive business too, as an independent label manufacturing in the UK, to try to make such a broad range of sizes – wholesale margins are tight, factory minimums can be prohibitive, stores are closing down, and many retailers don’t want to stock larger sizes.

O’Dwyer says that more brands and retailers could be more size-inclusive but they don’t care, or it’s too expensive to do so. “It’s not just about the development of the garments, it’s about the development of the customer. They can’t just all of a sudden start doing lots of other sizes because they need them to sell, so they also need to do the marketing, reach that customer and let them know that they can buy something from them. I think that is a huge piece of investment. If you’ve never been able to buy something in [a luxury store] you’re not all of a sudden going to go in there just to have a look – you need to be told.”

“Even at that, people aren’t necessarily going to see something in a size 24 in a campaign and think ‘I’ll just pop over and buy myself something’ – they are used to that being just for campaign and runway – it’ll be about representation and then there will be no product.”

While her range is generally stocked from size 6 to 20, O’Dwyer says that it is still important to her to develop patterns and show up to a size 30. “It matters to me, and I am doing the development and will hopefully have a direct-to-consumer soon which will be my opportunity to offer my full-size range,” she says. “I am doing my best. I am not doing everything right and am definitely making mistakes but the intention is there. All the patterns and all that research are an important part of the future of the brand.” sineadodwyer.com