For the second year running, 080 Barcelona Fashion has hosted the only inclusive fashion show in Spain, organising a show by Free Form Style, a Mataró-based company that is a pioneer in the design of fashion adapted to people with reduced mobility and disabilities.

This show is among the measures included in the Action Plan to Combat Aesthetic Pressure 2023-2026, which was presented by the Ministry of Equality and Feminisms a year ago. It is a plan promoted by the Catalan Women’s Institute and includes some sixty actions in areas such as fashion, audiovisuals, sport, the world of work, education and health.

Verge added that “this is a very important task, because we have to standardise absolutely all the bodies. There are no bodies outside the norm, and this is being strongly promoted by 080 Barcelona Fashion Week. In fact, last year we experienced a historic moment when, for the first time, both in Catalonia and in the whole of Spain, an inclusive fashion show was included that broke all the barriers, that normalised all diversity and that is now part of the DNA of 080”.

Finally, the Minister called on fashion companies and brands to actively combat aesthetic pressure – “creativity is part of what the fashion industry is, it is a key element, and creativity must mean having the ability to do things better, to find the best solutions. We encourage fashion companies to go further, to do things differently, to break these canons that have been imposing on us a certain way of understanding, not only fashion, but also what ideal bodies are” – and recalled that the fashion show is part of the Action Plan to Combat Aesthetic Pressure.

Promoting good practices in the fashion sector

In addition to this body neutrality and disability awareness fashion show, the Action Plan to Combat Aesthetic Pressure includes other measures aimed at promoting good practices and strengthening consumer rights in the fashion sector. 

“Aesthetic pressure generates symbolic violence towards women and girls, it generates ideals that are very difficult to achieve, of unreal bodies that generate very small cracks through which no body can pass, neither women’s nor girls’. It generates a lot of suffering, a lot of low self-esteem, a lot of eating disorders and it also dictates not only certain body shapes, but also that women’s social value is their beauty,” stressed Verge.

The Plan envisages a major national agreement with leading fashion brands to promote body neutrality, i.e. acceptance of one’s own body as it is without positive or negative aesthetic judgement, as well as ensuring the availability in all physical shops of appropriate sizes for all bodies. 

In addition to the fashion sector, the Action Plan to Combat Aesthetic Pressure works in a number of areas, including food, consumer affairs, audiovisual media, sport, the world of work, education and health. The document is the result of joint work with organisations and activists linked to the fight against aesthetic pressure and the various Catalan Government ministries. The sixty actions it includes will run from 2023-2026, with an initial budget of 10.6 million euros.