The success of fashion month hinges on the shock of the new, whether that's trends or names-to-know. But while the clothes might shift from season to season, with different references, silhouettes, colour palettes and moods, there's a habit that's harder to change: casting. Karoline Vitto, one of the most exciting talents at London Fashion Week, put it best in her press release with its deadpan opening question: "'Where did all the curve models go?,' the headlines asked. Nowhere. The weight of body diversity should not rest on a handful of designers. But with Karoline Vitto and her contemporaries taking a step back over the past couple seasons for one reason or another, it felt like curve model casting had all but frozen over." Hers was a show that drew on silhouettes from the '90s and 'early '00s, "minus the heroin chic body ideals," cleverly adapting toxic standards of the past into something that did not demonise but celebrated, with a teardrop cut-out placed over the hip bone in one instance that gave its gown exquisite oomph.
