Melbourne Fashion Week might be breaking the mould with the unique locations of its catwalk events at the MCG car park, the Aquarium, and across the city, but in one key area the event is a disappointment.

Look through the list of brands being represented in the luxury clothing category and you’ll discover they are missing almost anything that would fit an average size Australian woman.

Of the 70-odd labels listed, only 21 offer anything over a size 14 and just eight cater to a size 16.
One company even has a separate section for sizes 18 to 22, not to be included with their core offering. I can only hope they don’t make segregation a habit in store.

The average Australian woman weighs 71.1 kilograms and is a size 14-16, according to recent ABS data from 2017-2018 financial year.
So why do such a small percentage of brands go over this size?

And why are we still talking about this in 2021?

We’ve heard time and again the enormous pressure on runway models to be rake thin – so what message is this sending to the next generation of women?

• Read the full opinion piece written by Leina Broughton in The Sydney Morning Herald here