Dua Lipa collaborating with a new clothing company called Nyden seemed like one of the best things that could possibly be happening in the pop/fashion world today. Not only is Dua one of the biggest pop stars in the world right now, she is also known to have exquisite taste in fashion that can frequently be seen in her unique on-stage outfits, or in photos of her attending high-end award shows, where she appears on the red carpet, more than delighted to show off her carefully designed and selected outfit for the night. Knowing that this collaboration of clothing would be unisex and accessible for everyone made the whole idea seem so much greater.
However, if you look beyond the announcement posts – they can be found on both Dua’s Instagram and Twitter – and instead at Dua’s replies to fans, we learn that perhaps the clothing line isn’t exactly inclusive and designed for everyone. When a fan asked if the clothing line would be unisex she answered with, “Yes. What I’ve wanted to do with this collection is so that it’s universal and accessible for everyone.” However, when another fan asked if the line would be plus size she answered with, “It goes up to size 16 UK.” This means that the collaboration would not be available in plus sizes as the only plus size available would be the 16 - the biggest size in the collection.
This sparked a heated debate between fans as many people were quick to point out that the clothes would not be inclusive to everyone. One fan tweeted, “Girl do u know how annoying that is. It’s such a struggle for plus size people to find nice clothing.”
One other collaboration that has been under fire lately for not releasing inclusive sizes is the Savage x Fenty lingerie brand. After releasing the size chart, many fans were irritated that the biggest cup size available was a DD. After releasing such an inclusive make up collection, fans were disappointed to see that the lingerie, on the other hand, was not. This size chart was released after Rihanna tweeted that “Savages come in all shapes and sizes!! Ya ready?”
After receiving a lot of backlash, Savage X Fenty got straight to the heart of the issue and replied back to a disappointed fan, “Don’t worry Em. We are on the beginning and soon there will be more sizes and styles to come! Don’t forget to opt-in to receive all the updates emails form Savage X Fenty!” Since this tweet, Savage have increased their sizes by one cup size, meaning that the biggest size available now is a 42DDD. Although this isn’t very much, it shows that the company is listening to the fans and wants to make the lingerie as inclusive as possible.
We can only hope that the same thing is to happen with the collaboration between Dua Lipa X Nyden as it is very disappointing that the biggest size available is only a 16. Although many fans are angry with this announcement, they are not surprised and have let it be known that they have been let down more than once with plus sized clothing in many brands. One fan tweeted, “Dua Lipa is making a clothing range but it’s not going to have any plus sizes, in this economy why am I still surprised.”
Many fans however were very quick to defend Dua as they believe that when she wrote about the clothing being accessible to everyone, she meant on behalf of her unisex comment, not on behalf of the sizing. As a big fan of Dua Lipa myself, I am one of the disappointed fans as I know that people who may already struggle with finding clothing sizes are now not going to be able to enjoy the new collaboration of clothing. Me and many other devoted fans hope that after the backlash she has received due to this issue, Dua or her team will hopefully be able to bring out plus sizes, making the clothing properly inclusive for everyone. As well as being excited for this collaboration to be released, I am also anxious on how she will deal with this and whether or not she will comment on the issue.