Dear Board of Contrast Magazine,
Let me begin by saying that I love your work. As someone who is interested in fashion and particularly interested in the fashion choices of other Vassar students, I think the magazines and fashion shows you produce are well-curated, cutting edge, and professional. But, as an organization and publication which purports to reflect fashion, lifestyle, and every day looks, I am disappointed that I cannot call your publication all-inclusive. Contrast Magazine does not reflect my fashion, my lifestyle, and my everyday looks as a fat person.
To be clear, I do not claim that my experience encapsulates the experience of all plus-sized people-I am one of many on Vassar’s campus. But I am sure that any plus-sized person, fat person, larger person, curvy person, or any person who has a body which is considered to be an unconventional size do not see themselves reflected in Contrast.
In my four years at Vassar, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen larger people featured in your magazine, in your runway shows, on your website, and on your Instagram page. This erasure and purposeful passing over of bigger bodies displays a disdain for fat people that I’ve come to expect from the fashion industry and society as a whole. But to see this trend replicated in a student-run publication at Vassar has been particularly surprising and painful. As a smaller operation, beholden to no corporate sponsors like larger fashion magazines, and serving a diverse student body, Contrast has the ability to be more size inclusive, yet for some inexplicable reason you, the Board, choose not to be.
Bigger bodies are beautiful. Fat bodies are beautiful. Plus-sized bodies are beautiful. I’m not telling you these sentiments to convince you to believe them; I’m telling you them as fact. I’m telling you because fat students exist on this campus and Contrast Magazine needs to do a better job of representing them and their bodies.
Send out a call for models which centers fat models and then feature them. Include editorials written by and about the experience of curvy people. Bring fashion designers to campus who make clothes which not only fit, but accentuate plus-sized bodies. Engage larger people with your work and encourage them to apply to your Board. Ask your fat readers and audience what we would like to see in your publications, events, and social media presence. I also encourage you to check out people who produce fat fashion content such as: plus-sized Instagram model Jazzmyne Robbins, size-inclusive designers Tuesday Bassen and Gabi Fresh, and style blogger Jessica Torres. But please don’t stop there, please take the time to learn about size-inclusive fashion.
Make these changes because to do otherwise is exclusionary.
All the best,
Evelyn Frick ‘19
