Designer A-Z

Mark Fast

Autumn/Winter 2010

By Carrie Gorman

And so the hoopla begins again for Mark Fast after showing plus size models on his catwalk, opening the tabloid floodgates to cast light on brilliant, progressive London Fashion Week for all the wrong reasons.

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No one is against models of varying sizes. And the term plus size is laughable when you see them in the flesh. They look slimmer than the very trim journalists.

But I do take issue with giving size 6 samples to size 12 girls. I would like to see more respect given to full breasts that can not be housed in nipple-skimming dresses without falling out. Or the correct underwear so that it is not visibly tracked under the harsh lights.

Mark Fast is known for his body-conscious dresses, his beautifully accomplished knitting techniques and super-sexy shapes. For Autumn Winter 2010, he moved his trademark on to include draped and looser fabric dresses, alongside tight layered cobweb dresses in silver, khaki and red. But he put his show ponies in the most stretched and uncomfortable designs for their figure which smacks of tabloid grabbing self-promotion. If the message was "everyone can wear my dresses", I wasn't sold.