WORDS Anna Cafolla
PHOTOGRAPHY Jasmine Engel-Malone
There are few constants in a young designer’s life – whether that’s the precarity of studio space or a dearth in fabric sourcing. But there’s a persistent and important figure, often unsung, who embodies the first and final articulation of a designer’s artistry.
A fit – or fitting – model is there to test a designer’s garments, from the first pattern-cutting sessions to a collection’s debut. A body to build upon the renderings of a design sensibility. But they’re more than a live mannequin or a figurine. It’s a foundational relationship where young designers, percolating with ideas, craft their most primitive aesthetic aspects on a model, whose body gives live feedback. Exposing and intense, technical and intimate, in the space between designer and model, craft grows. The curve of a hip traces the throughline to a final piece, the sigh of a waist to the swell of a breast constellates their vision.
There are designers for whom structure, silhouette, and shape are dialectical, and for Belfast-born designer Tara Hakin, everything starts and ends with the body. Her avant-garde designs – worn by Julia Fox, Shygirl, and Rosalía– are visually stimulating. Each garment, with asymmetric cuts and close fits, is a riotous romp across the body that it both ravishes and reveres. Her signature Waterfall dress is a tour de force, slicing the torso. Tara’s forthcoming AW24 collection sees her “prioritise comfort and functionality” – with a new focus on everyday wear, fitting is an important part of her own learning.
Tara starts with fitting on herself. “I enjoy the feeling of trying on developed toiles, and the feeling of loving how they feel,” she says. “The aim of this collection is to develop core wardrobe staples.” As a collection progresses, Tara brings in a fit model “so that we can see the garment from a different perspective”. “It’s imperative to understand the model has full mobility, and that the garments are designed to withstand time.”
While time and budget constraints limit her use of fit models, it’s an opportunity to immerse herself in her designs. “I feel a disconnect between my ideas and the garment if I can’t see how they feel and fit [on me],” Tara says. This season, she has developed styles and drapes on a UK 12 mannequin, then scales up and down. “When I studied, there was this feeling that anything you made had to be a size 8 or below. There was no going against the norm then. It created quite an unhealthy mindset.”
Emmally – a textile designer, DJ and journalist who has worked with Tara as a fit model for AW24 – describes her past experiences as a model elsewhere as “exceptionally negative.” “Modelling from age 14-16 led me to nearly die from an eating disorder.”
Being a fit model comes with the inarguable tension, that is, hyperfocus on your body made inherent to the job. Now, Emmally only models for friends and designers whose “ethos aligns with positive change in the industry, or those focused on the representation of diverse bodies, especially in the femme and queer community.”
The fitting process with Tara, Emmally says, is meditative. “As a freelance creative juggling multiple projects daily, standing for long durations while toiles are fitted is a refreshing change. Tara is patient and considerate, creating a calm and thoughtful environment.”
“In Tara’s designs, I feel empowered. They evoke a sense of femininity while making me feel strong – there’s a beautiful balance of softness and strength.” The creative process is symbiotic. “[The designs] inspire me to keep pushing for diversity within the fashion industry, and to do my part whenever I have the opportunity.”
My favourite pieces have naturally developed once they are on the body, with the form dictating the next stage of development. I work faster and more intuitively this way.
“Learning how to design for different bodies and proportions is really core to what I do,” Tara says. She develops garments with a spectrum of heights, shapes, and hems. Using techniques to make garments either adjustable or amendable has also been key.
She doesn’t sketch, preferring to work on a body or mannequin. “My favourite pieces have naturally developed once they are on the body, with the form dictating the next stage of development. I work faster and more intuitively this way.”
When garments are more conceptual, a fit model is the earliest physical iteration of a design narrative. Selina Dreijer creates sinuous, sculptural designs that are in dialogue with the human psyche. A standout project is a Victorian-like gown with a dramatic, crinoline-like skirt that opens out to reveal envelopes. It is inspired by her grandfather’s love letters to her grandmother, some of his only possessions salvaged from China’s cultural revolution. Selina’s designs reckon with generational trauma, vulnerability and catharsis.
“It’s about ‘opening up’ – an envelope, your own complicated emotions, family,” Selina explains. Layering is a way to articulate this for the CSM BA Knitwear student. “Tactile layers have more emotion. They feel so close to the wearer,” she says. With such knotted emotions to unspool, Selina starts with her model and the character she can create with them. “Models are so important to my work,” Selina says. She considers their skin tone and shape as much as their “energy and aura”. “I need them to convey my story – my designs are so conceptual. There’s so much research behind each tiny knit or big sculptural piece. I want the wearer to feel an intricate relationship with it. ”
Selina has also worked as a model for Chet Lo and Chopova Lowena. “It was interesting to see how their fittings worked. I’m a completely different person as a designer and model,” she says. “I think about how clothes fit every day. It’s hard not to bring in my own creativity! But it’s interesting to experience how someone else’s garment evolves.”
Selina prefers to work with one fit model, building structures and sampling directly onto the body – a process that liberates her thinking: “It makes me tactile – I create my own research, more unique storylines in this process.
“Part of the beauty of a project is to experience it with your muse. Someone who sees it from the outside, but who experiences the emotion and process too. Designers can get in their heads, and models continue the story.”
Talia Lipkin-Connor, the designer behind Talia Byre, creates clothes where movement is the foundation – knits frame the body, while tailored fishtail skirts trace the wearer. Classic womenswear tropes, like twin sets, cardigans and fitted dresses are twisted. Taking inspiration from the ballet and breezy holidays in previous collections, Talia’s storytelling unfurls in exposed seams, soft corsetry, and exquisite tailoring. A demure silhouette is offset by sheer fabric or sumptuous shocks of colour. “We play with what feels sexy, tough, intellectual,” Talia says.“Those emotions are felt first in a fitting, and we tease them out.”
Building a relationship with someone where they can feel like they can articulate to you that something doesn’t feel good is incredibly important. “It impacts what we’re making,” Talia says. “Knowing the model is vital. Sometimes it’s me, or it’s someone else in the studio. We need to constantly try stuff on to experiment. We’re constantly draping and fitting – we just tried on a dress again today and it’s going in a completely different direction.”
“I’ve never had anyone on the team that doesn’t have an opinion. Everyone here has to have a sense of style, to have thoughts. All these people become a part of each collection.”
Former fit models style the shows, manage the studio, and upcycle the shoes for the runway. Talia is currently looking for another fit model: “You need the attitude and opinions to be a part of the team. No way is it just standing there.”
“I love it when Talia wants to try new things on me,” says Ines, who is a studio intern. “It makes me feel included, and it offers me a whole new perspective. I get to know all the details, care, and hardships that go into developing an independent designer’s collection.” Fitting is Ines’s favourite stage of the collection – “It transforms the process into a conversation, to see it on my body. You start envisioning who the piece is for, who is the woman wearing it.”
“Talia understands how women want to dress and be perceived,” Ines says. “Wearing her pieces makes me feel confident and very special. The garment becomes a part of my body, and not just something on top of it.”
Talia understands how women want to dress and be perceived. Wearing her pieces makes me feel confident and very special. The garment becomes a part of my body, and not just something on top of it.
Ellie Misner specialises in bespoke, demi-couture pieces, making garments that are in service to the body, idealising undervalued and imperfect concepts of beauty. Ellie’s last collection, ‘Be Careful’, was dedicated to her grandma, who has dementia. The degradation of mental and physical health plays out in the clothing, elegantly falling on and off the body. “As women, our body shapes are so different, and they change through our lives, but the codes made for what adorns women’s bodies stay strict. I wanted to accentuate that,” Ellie says. “A woman’s curves – like her idea of herself – falls apart, but there’s something beautiful in that.”
Ellie’s collection was built around boned structures on the body. “It was important for the piece to hold someone close.” The vision came into being through fittings on different-sized models. There’s space for pieces to change with the models. “There’s a blue corset where the boob is cut out to sheer underneath,” says Ellie. “That piece was a struggle, but when I started fitting it on Luna, I found the way. It gained clarity, it was perfect – she had to wear it.”
The designer regularly works with her best friend and curve model, Karmi Pinning. “Our friendship is a source of inspiration. And seeing the negative experiences she’s had, I use that as a textbook for what not to do!”
The modelling industry is mired by stories of tumultuous working conditions, poor pay, abuse and assault. Cultivating a safe environment starts with a designer. “I have always had a very safe and positive experience doing fittings with Ellie,” says Karmi Pinning. “It’s a space that I can proudly say I can go to and feel encouraged and supported. There’s been a really big distinction between working with her and working in the industry for almost 10 years. Ellie is about making you feel good, not prioritising herself as the designer.”
Openness and trust between a designer and model makes better, more beautiful clothes.
Ellie works with sample sizes and curve models of varying sizes for collections and customs where her resources as an independent designer allow. Priority is in the intuitive, human details. “I’m extra conscious that someone with size H boobs might not be as comfortable stripping and standing around in an environment more open to size 6 girls,” says Ellie.
She’s also found new ways to acquaint herself with the body, having taught herself to build bespoke mannequins by steaming wadding to replicate clients’ exact measurements. Making clothes that aren’t sample size isn’t as simple as ‘one and done’ or an aspect ratio. It’s a strain on skill, as well as funds. “You should be able to make pieces in every size, but it’s a lot of work and money,” she says. “I’ve committed to it because it’s important. Massive brands have the resources, but they’re lazy. Small brands feel the responsibility, but you’re challenged economically and ethically.
Each designer’s ethos and process flows between and through them and their models. “I want to make things that people feel beautiful and seen in, and so models should feel comfortable to tell me whether or not they feel good in something in the safe, inclusive environment of the fitting,” Ellie sums up. “Openness and trust between a designer and model makes better, more beautiful clothes.”
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