Thelife- On Sunday,
model Tess Holliday said on Twitter that a strawberry-print dress she wore to the 2020 Grammy Awards landed her on "worst-dressed lists" back in January, but is now popular amongTikTok users. - Holliday said in a second tweet that she believes she received criticism for wearing the dress but others have not because "our society hates fat people."
- As some Twitter users have pointed out, Holliday was also included on best-dressed lists following the red-carpet event.
- Still, the model's message points to larger issues within the
fashion industry regarding sizing and weight.
Model Tess Holliday is questioning the popularity of a strawberry-print dress months after she says she was criticized for wearing it.
On Monday, Holliday tweeted about the Lirika Matoshi Strawberry Midi Dress, which has recently gained attention on TikTok from fans of the cottagecore aesthetic. In her tweet, Holliday said: "I like how this dress had me on worst-dressed lists when I wore it in January, but now bc a bunch of skinny ppl wore it on TikTok everyone cares."
She added in a second tweet: "To sum it up: our society hates fat people, especially when we are winning."
—Tess Hlliday (@Tess_Holliday) August 17, 2020
The Lirika Matoshi dress has been rising in popularity since early August
As Insider's Palmer Haasch previously reported, the garment is undoubtedly "summer's hottest TikTok fashion item." It was first released in summer 2019, but became more popular this year, likely "due to the fact that it plays into existing online trends," according to Haasch.
"The cottagecore online aesthetic, which is built on a soft, idealized pastoral lifestyle, has seen a boom within the last year," Haasch wrote. "Mitski's "Strawberry Blonde" has been having a moment on TikTok as well."
In an email sent to Insider, Holliday said she "felt so beautiful" and "like a princess" when she wore the dress on the red carpet.
"I got overwhelmingly-positive responses from my followers, and a lot of the press stated how nice I looked," Holliday told Insider. "But for the few weeks following the Grammys, my DMs on Instagram were flooded with different fashion pages doing polls of Grammy looks and my look got torn apart."
"I've never seen so many thumbs-down emojis in my life," she added. "I don't typically care what others say about me, especially when it comes to what I'm wearing, so I just tried to brush it off. It wasn't until recently when the dress went viral that it really bothered me because I knew that just seven months prior, a lot of people who are now praising the dress are the very people who said I looked horrible."
Tess Holliday's tweets have started a debate about inclusive fashion
Some Twitter users have said they agree with the model's tweets, and further questioned why women of different sizes often receive different responses when wearing similar clothing.
—Sarah Miles (@SarahJoSmiley) August 17, 2020
Others, however, said they couldn't find any worst-dressed lists from January that named Holliday. Some also pointed out that outlets including the Daily Mail and Nylon wrote positively about the model's outfit.
—Annalisa Nicole (@annalisa_nicole) August 17, 2020
Holliday later responded to such tweets, writing: "I'm aware some people said I looked nice in my Grammys dress & I never said I didn't make best-dressed lists as well as WORST dressed, but y'all are purposely ignoring the important part of my post: SOCIETY TREATS FAT PEOPLE LIKE WE ARE INVISIBLE."
"Look at all of the Black plus-size women that blazed trails in so many areas for so long, & the erasure that happened," she continued. "The min someone who is in a smaller frame that's deemed acceptable by societies standards does/wears the same thing & 'OMG THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY.'"
—Tess Hlliday (@Tess_Holliday) August 17, 2020
Speaking to Insider, Holliday added that "there were about one or two places" that ranked her as worst-dressed at the Grammys, though she didn't specify who.
"They don't deserve my time or recognition," she said. "What I find frustrating about dissecting how many people said I was 'worst dressed' is that people are choosing to focus on that part instead of what the larger message is: that fat/plus-size bodies aren't treated as equals. That we are rarely seen as 'trendy' or 'fashionable,' and we are criticized way more simply because of our bodies. It's dehumanizing."
Still, Holliday's message sheds light on common problems within the fashion industry
As Holliday mentioned in a note posted to her Instagram story on Monday, the fashion industry doesn't always treat all bodies the same.
"Thank you to everyone who has shared my post in solidarity," Holliday wrote. "Like it or not, please understand that just because you have never been shamed for your size doesn't make it less valid. I've been in the fashion industry for a decade, fat bodies are not treated the same."
"It's exhausting & as much as y'all are tired of hearing me talk about it, I'm even more exhausted having it be my reality," Holliday added. "You might not like me, you might think I'm a s----- person, & that's fine because I don't need your validation. I'm just asking for respect, not just for me, but for plus-size/fat bodies out there.
As Business Insider previously reported, some brands and retailers impose a "fat tax" on clothing — as well as other items — that are made in larger sizes. And in May 2018, Fashionista editor-in-chief Tyler McCall wrote that luxury brands often "ignore" opportunities "in the plus-size sector."
When asked what she thinks needs to happen within the fashion industry to combat such issues, Holliday said: "I feel like, at this point, anyone who is choosing to not be more inclusive is doing so purposefully."
"We know what needs to be done, I don't need to keep saying it," she added. "We just deserve more than the scraps we are continuously given by high-end designers."
- Read more:
- Plus-sized model Tess Holliday says she wakes up every day to messages from people telling her she's unhealthy
- Plus-size model Tess Holliday slammed an app for digitally slimming her body down in a photo they stole
- A celebrity magazine was criticized for calling 16-year-old Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands 'plus-size'
- Ashley Graham is getting honest about her postpartum body on Instagram, posting photos of her stretch marks and disposable underwear