Orange Is The New Black’s Dascha Polanco (who plays Daya in the show) has hit out against sizeism in Hollywood, saying designers have refused to dress her because of her figure.
She told journalists some high-end brands had rejected her purely based on her size; ‘I love what they do, so I had my publicist reach to their PR team. Their response was “Oh, you’re not the sizes we have, not right now, maybe in the future”. It’s disappointing, but I try to work with up-and-coming designers who will make things for me and who will collaborate with me. People who love my curves and embrace them as much as I do.'
Unfortunately, it seems Dascha isn’t alone in this. Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones has also spoken out on this issue in the past, tweeting that no designers had offered to dress her for the Hollywood premiere of the movie.
‘It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for movie. Hmmm that will change and I remember everything,’ she wrote.
She was later approached by Project Runway winner Christian Siriano, who sent her a waving hand emoji and offered his services, to which Jones replied ‘YAAAAAASSSSSS’.
Christian later tweeted, ‘it shouldn’t be exceptional to work with brilliant people just because they’re not sample size. Congrats aren’t in order, a change is’.
Leslie’s Ghostbusters co-star Melissa McCarthy has faced similar issues in the past, telling Redbook magazine, ‘Two Oscars ago, I couldn’t find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or size six designers – very high level ones who make lots of dresses for people – and they all said no.’
‘I don’t understand why if you’re a certain size, designers think your taste level goes down and you have less money to spend. The quality and construction is often so bad. Finding a great T-shirt or a great cigarette pant in a good fabric is next to impossible. Plus-size clothes are often really cheap and either look young or incredibly old’.
Melissa has since put her money where her mouth is and launched her own fashion line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7, which features clothing in (US) sizes 4 to 28.
Following her experiences, Dascha has also been inspired to try her hand at designing. ‘This year I’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, as far as fashion goes, just meeting with people, collaborating and brainstorming, because fashion is something I will invest my time in... You’re not going to make my s***? Well, I’m going to make my own,’ she said.
While designers may have snubbed her, Dascha has received an overwhelmingly positive response from fans on social media, encouraging her to embrace her body.
‘Online, a lot of the feedback is that people would love for me to show my body more! They love when I wear something tight, they love when I wear something see-through; they love when I wear stuff that just embraces every bit of my curves,’ she said.
‘I realise that life is short – I’m building that confidence, and doing things as far as fashion that I’ve never done before’.
Ladies, we couldn’t agree more.
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