Karoline Vitto’s Body-Positive S/S´24 Show

The London-based Brazilian designer Karoline Vitto brought her body-positive vision to Milan Fashion Week with support from Dolce & Gabbana. There were tears. Below, Vogue’s Anders Christian Madsen breaks down five things to know about the show.

The show was supported by Dolce & Gabbana

Every season at the women’s shows in Milan, Dolce & Gabbana provide a platform for a young designer. This season, their gesture of goodwill – all expenses paid – went to Karoline Vitto, a young Brazilian designer based in London, whose practice is focused on the beauty and enhancement of the female body. Her work is a reaction to the body image she grew up with in Brazil as part of a local Y2K culture focused on a certain kind of physique to which she couldn’t relate.

It featured a full curve cast

Staged in the Dolce & Gabbana Casa building on Via Giuseppe Broggi, the show featured a body-positive cast. “We wanted a full curve cast. We didn’t want to have ‘sample size’ models,” Vitto explained. “We started from a size 10 [and went up] to a size 24. We had to fly a few girls in from London. My studio is based there, so in order to make these pieces we needed to start fitting some of the girls in London. We started much earlier than most brands.”

It centred around jersey and metal

Vitto largely expresses herself in jersey and metal rings. The collection revolves around fluid deshabillé garments that followed the curve of the body and accentuated its contours through the addition of metal rings incorporated into the construction. “I love the malleability of jersey and the materiality of it, and working with it in terms of stretch. It’s something I like design-wise, also with the addition of metal,” she said.

Ashley Graham opened the show

After the show, Ashley Graham – who opened the show – hugged a crying Vitto. “You should be crying, it was incredible! We just made history!” the model told her before tuning to the reporters. “It feels normal. You want diversity? This is diversity. More designers should be doing this. We need more curves on the runway, we need to have this be the normal. If I’m feeling normal on a runway with this many girls, it means that there’s something that doesn’t feel normal on runways everywhere else.”

It was the power of clothes

Backstage, Vitto was greeted by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. “This is the power of clothes. Keep going. Call me if you need anything,” Gabbana could be heard telling her. “For me, it’s very natural,” Vitto told the press. “It shouldn’t even be a question of why it’s important or not, it should just be. Because the majority of us are not sample size so we should have that representation on the catwalk. I just think it’s how it should be.”