The NWA Fat Fashion Show is taking place later this month at the Medium in Springdale. Katherine Fitzwilson and Annalise Robins are the producers of the show. They spoke with Ozarks at Large's Sophia Nourani at the Carver Center for Public Radio. Robins is an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas studying apparel merchandising and has hosted fashion shows in the past. She says the idea for a fat fashion show came to her, and Fitzwilson's online presence inspired her to pursue it.
Annalise Robins: Fitz, I looked it up — you had just started your Instagram, right?
Katherine Fitzwilson: Yeah. I have what I call a silly little Instagram that I post my outfits on.
Nourani: I love them.
Fitzwilson: Thank you. Yeah. Originally it was just for me to make a commitment to myself, to be creative each day and to kind of root myself in choice each day and do a little task. I had done it previously, shut it down, restarted it right around when Annalise reached out.
Robins: Fitz started doing it, and I met Fitz at the Library Vintage. We were both wearing camo pants. I remember — I DM'd her on March 8 or 9, we had a coffee meeting, and then the next week it was like March 12. Even. Like, it was so soon after the Medium released their grants. And in our meeting, we just chatted and met each other and really got to know each other. And then I was like, I want to do this. I think it should happen. Fitz said yes, and we're like, OK, venue, money — how do we do this? We just need like a lump sum of money to make this really happen. And I feel good about it. They released the grants, we applied and we got it. So it was crazy.
Fitzwilson: And then we were like, OK, now we're doing this. Yeah, it really is real, I guess.
Robins: We answered those questions. And that jump is from March to June — June is when we heard back. So we were just kind of like, well, we'll see.
Fitzwilson: I think in that in-between time we had just met to keep dreaming about what it would look like, who we would want to have involved, what our ethos of this would be. Because we were like, if we don't get the grant, we'll figure out some way to do it. But a sweet thing about the Medium has been that we got the grant and the space, but also so many resources through their team and their knowledge. It has just been such a learning process, but also a really collaborative and special project with them. So we're really glad we get to work with them on it.
I think when we first started talking about this, we weren't sure how many designers we would want, but we had a few names in the community that we were feeling really confident about. And through talking to them, we remembered other people that we knew. A theme of this process for us has been saying out loud, "It would be so cool to have XYZ thing," and the next day having someone DM us or email us and say, "Hey, I have this thing specifically that I would love to offer." So with designers, I feel like that came together pretty quickly. And then with models, we put out a notice for an open model casting call at Saqqara Coffee in Fayetteville, and we were so shocked at the amount of people that turned out.
We got to just sit down with them and wanted to make sure it wasn't a "you come in, you walk, we take your measurements, we don't talk to you, you leave." We really wanted it to be: let's sit down. Why would you like to be a part of this? What would make you feel comfortable and safe in this process? And we were just so impressed by each of them and the reasons why they wanted to be a part.
Robins: We have 14 models in total and seven designers — one of them is a group of two designers working together. I also found out before we filled out the grant, we had posted an Instagram story being like, would anyone come to this? And we got 80 responses.
And one of my friends was also working on another event at George's, and she was like, just put out a call and see if it gets anything — that's how you'll know. And so we did, and we immediately got responses. And we really did go through that and see who would be involved, who initially filled it out, and then remembered people and reached out to them.
Fitzwilson: All of us agree — not only systemically in the fashion world, is it harder as a fat person to express yourself, especially in the way that you want to. You can technically find clothes that fit you, but do those match your style and your personal self-expression? Very limited. And the process of finding vintage clothing and sustainable clothing and fat fashion is very difficult. So it was really fun to sit down with each of them and hear that they hadn't gotten to model before, or they hadn't gotten to design a full collection before, or had never gotten to design for larger bodies — even though they're in a larger body themselves. So many stories of people really wanting that gap filled and just not knowing how that would happen. And so we have felt really inspired. The motivation has felt really clear. The why has felt clear, because it's what we all keep coming back to.
Robins: VIP tickets are $50. It includes a meal at Handshake, who will be popped up there. Also included will be a VIP tote bag block-printed by Terry McNeill with the logo, and a button with the logo designed by Sarah Vance, or Hobby House by Sarah — she'll be vending there as well. And then at 6:30 we kind of start a countdown and that's when we open general admission doors. Also there will be Middle Child Cookies, and Tattoo Your Own Clothes will be there — they have taken our logos and put them into an embroidery machine. So you can come in and bring anything, or they're going to pull some things from the vintage library for you to have tattooed. Lots of cool ties there.
And Fits and Bean will be there. Do you want to talk about that?
Fitzwilson: Yeah. Fits and Bean is essentially a mutual aid project between me and my best friend. It was originally developed when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and we were wanting to raise money for reproductive justice support. My best friend — they're like the most talented jewelry designer I've ever met — will be there selling their pieces, and that will go towards funding some medical care for them. So I'm feeling really excited about that.
Fitzwilson: Anyway — the Instagram is@nwa.fat.fashionshow.
Robins: We did kind of look at your press release, and you specifically came to me and talked about it afterward. I was just like, that's it. It's really hard for fat people to have clothes. It's really hard for them to even get representation if they are a professional model in this space right now. But it sounds like you've built this kind of community where people are now getting custom garments made for them, getting things made in their style, getting to walk the runway — and if community can come together like this, fat people can have visibility and representation in a really beautiful way that's not a spectacle.
Whenever I was doing some research about fat people and where they've been represented, the main thing I found in history was circuses — where it was like "the 600-pound lady." And I was like, whoa, that's crazy. Like, that's what this is. That's where visibility was — it was a spectacle. And so we're kind of breaking that down entirely. And it's just so fun.
Fitzwilson: Yeah, that was a really intentional choice when we were talking about this show. We were like, we don't want to call it the curvy fashion show, the plus-size fashion show, the big-boned fashion show. We really don't want to use these euphemisms that imply that the word "fat" is a bad word, because actually the word "fat" is a neutral descriptor. It does not imply morality, it does not imply health diagnoses. It just is a descriptor of someone's body. And we want to celebrate fatness in particular, and make sure that people there know that we are leading the way and not skirting around that. So that was important to us and has been one of the most talked-about things with this show — people asking us about that in particular. And we're glad we did that.
The NWA Fat Fashion Show takes place at the Medium, 214 S. Main St. in Springdale, on March 21. The event is 18 and over. Tickets and more information can be found at the show's Instagram.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
