FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS: CASE STUDY
Start a FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS initiative at your fashion design school.
Fashion Without Limits’ Mission is Three-Fold:
To strengthen the impact of fashion design, positive body image, and self-esteem for 100 + million people in the US who wear a size 14/XL or above and who can not find well-fitting lifestyle-appropriate apparel.
Reduce a 62+ billion dollar apparel return crisis (in the US alone) and,
Boost our national economy by directing billions of dollars into the supply chain.
The Fashion Without Limits® Student Designer Award (see below for past winners)
Student designer winners receive a glass goddess and a cash gift of $500 from the True Beauty Foundation.
Best efforts are made by Emme (or other top models) to wear the student designer's winning design at
an awards ceremony, red carpet event, or magazine editorial to give designers coveted press tears/releases before graduation.
Lastly, winning designs, when able, are brought into production with a retail partner, with the student designer’s name
on the label along with the Fashion Without Limits hangtag highlighting their winning dress.
The Fashion Without Limits® Designer Award
The Fashion Without Limits® Designer Award honors designers who innovate by celebrating the diversity of women’s, men’s, and juniors’ bodies in fresh and inventive fashion platforms.
Winners are selected for their designs, seamlessly blending effortless style, impeccable fit, and commercial viability.
Fashion Without Limits® Retailer of The Year Award
The Fashion Without Limits® Retailer of the Year Award recognizes the retailer that excels in inclusivity within the fashion industry, demonstrating a genuine reflection of their diverse customer base through design, presentation, fit, and overall messaging, both online and in-store.
BACKGROUND:
Fashion Without Limits® (FWL) was created in 2013 by Emme, a 1985 Syracuse University graduate, in response to the frustration of not finding contemporary, high-quality bridge or designer apparel to wear to red carpet events and on-air as a TV personality/contributor.
FWL is a global initiative established and co-founded with professors Jeffrey Mayer and Todd Conover at Syracuse University’s School of Design, fashion program, young designers are taught an inclusive fashion education (pattern making, draping, illustration, design, and grading for sizes 0–24) during their 4-year fashion education, with a junior year competition highlighting the Fashion Without Limits Student Designer of the Year and runner up.
The Fashion Without Limits® Emme Goddess Award
The Fashion Without Limits Goddess Awards are one-of-a-kind Venus “Goddess” works of art created by
Corning Glass, Senior Glass Sculptor, Cat Ayers
The Fashion Without Limits® Professor Award
The Fashion Without Limits Professor Award recognizes professors who embody the mission of Fashion Without Limits by imparting their passion and enthusiasm for inclusive fashion education to young designers in a dynamic and stimulating manner.
The Fashion Without Limits® Media Award
The Fashion Without Limits® Media Award is presented to a distinguished individual or entity within the media landscape, including editors, reporters, bloggers, producers, data researchers, and journalists.
This accolade celebrates those who deliver pioneering and transformative coverage in the fashion and beauty industry, while adhering to professional standards, relying on factual evidence, and promoting inclusivity.
Their work highlights and celebrates diverse body types, addressing the lack of apparel options for women, men, and juniors in the current fashion landscape worldwide.
UNLEASHING THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF
AMERICAN FASHION DESIGNERS
TOOLS
FWL Student designers work with diverse dress forms (i.e., Alvanon and Wolf Forms) where students learn pattern making, draping, illustration, design, and grading for sizes 0–24.
In addition to curriculum upgrades and the design competition, fashion design programs offer a speaker series that supports diversity and inclusivity in fashion.
2018 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: KERRY PHELAN
FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER AWARD
WINNER'S CIRCLE
RESEARCH
ACCORDING TO…
Business Insider...“plus-sizes account for 67 percent of the population;” and
a recent survey of more than 5,000 U.S. women by online retailer MOD CLOTH found that “more U.S. women report wearing a size 16 dress than a size 2 and 0 combined,” and “57 percent of U.S. women wear at least some clothing in sizes 16 and above.”
“I am deeply grateful to feel the warm embrace in my partnership with Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and ‘Fashion Without Limits;’ initiative leadership by Assistant Professor Todd Conover; unwavering support by Del and Burt Hunton of Wolf Form; and confirmation for this revolutionary step in fashion education from the student body,” says Emme. “These are all steps that will help create a radical shift in how American designers celebrate a woman’s body. ”
“Emme’s passion made us aware that many college fashion design students can’t even try on their own designs because they only work with size 8 and 10 dress forms,” says Del Hunton, head of sales at Wolf Form Company. “We were happy to donate the forms to help the fashion design program become a founding father of size 12+ design.”
“We are so proud to be collaborating with Emme and Wolf Form Co. on the ‘Fashion Without Limits’ initiative,” says Todd Conover, assistant professor and coordinator of the fashion design program in VPA’s Department of Design. “We have planned curriculum changes within the fashion design program that will introduce this powerful initiative this coming fall, and we have plans to implement additional curriculum changes to integrate ‘Fashion Without Limits’ into all four years of our program. Thanks to Emme’s passion and commitment to aspirational high fashion for every body type, we will be at the forefront of a movement that I am hoping will spread throughout fashion programs, designer workrooms, and retailers across the country and will begin to alter body image attitudes.”
2023 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: Aphrodite Gioulekas
2022 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: Nina Chen
2021 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: Jessica Sylaj
Emme: What is your mission:
Kalthom: It’s my goal that my designs are inclusive, as I aspire to unite people.
Emme: How do you feel about winning the FWL Award this year?
Kalthom: I’m overjoyed to have won the Fashion Without Limits 2019 Emme Award and be among the Arab women that contribute to fashion around the world, Enchallah! 2019-2020 will be fabulous year!"
Kerry Phelan’s 2018 Winning FWL Dress - Syracuse University Arents Awards 2018, with Trustee and FWL Attorney Lauren Cramer and Professor Dr. James Fathers.
Dick Silverman 2018 Fashion Without Limits Media Award Winner and Emme (wearing Courtney Capazzi’s 2017 Winning dress)
2023 Winner Aphrodite Gioulekas with Prof Hudson and Emme
2019 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: KALTHOM A. ALJIBOURY
This driven and hard-working fashion-design major with a minor in retail management spent a semester last spring at The London College of Fashion then interned with Boston designer Denise Hajjar. As a designer, Kerry is motivated to find ways to use fashion as a voice. She aims to put meaning into her work by creating fashion that promotes sustainability, self-expression, and social justice.
Winning this year’s Fashion Without Limits Award:
‘I feel extremely honored to be a part of the design initiative Fashion Without Limits. Because of this design initiative, I was given the resources needed to design in ALL sizes, which many design students do not have due to restrictions on sizes of traditional dress forms. It feels extremely empowering to be a part of something that is pushing the boundaries of fashion, breaking through the old barriers, creating an inclusive industry catering to everyone regardless of size. This program has given me the chance to put more meaning into my work and strive to make a change. “
2018: FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® MEDIA WINNER: DICK SILVERMAN, WWD
It brings me immense pleasure to present Dick Silverman, an esteemed former editor of WWD, with this distinguished award, acknowledging his pioneering reporting on the often-overlooked plus-size fashion industry during the 1990s.
Long before the broader fashion industry was prepared to embrace the changes we now witness in the marketplace, Dick displayed a remarkable foresight regarding the potential within the plus-size market. Despite numerous challenges, he persisted in shedding light on these opportunities through his writing.
As a leader, advocate, and friend, Dick's unwavering dedication and professionalism served as a driving force for the industry, and personally, as a body image activist, supermodel, and clothing designer in the 90s, I firmly believe that without his and a select few others' efforts in the media, the curvy fashion industry would not have achieved its current status.
Khari Walser: "The opportunity to partake in something bigger than myself has been so great. I truly believe that Emme is creating an opportunity for designers to expand their minds and think in unconventional ways and as a designer that means something. Before I learned about Fashion Without Limits and partook in the program, I hadn’t thought much about the plus size market, let alone designing for it. I knew that the lack of options for plus sized women was an ongoing problem and affected many people that I knew but I didn’t know how I could improve that situation. With Fashion Without Limits I have seen that potential and plan to, through the course of my career as a designer, bridge that gap so that when people think of plus sized fashion it no longer carries the label of “plus sized fashion” and is simply just fashion! ”
2015 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: NICOLE WEZOWICZ:
2017 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: Courtney Capazzi
"I am sincerely grateful to have the opportunity to work with Emme on her mission to expand the plus size market and create fashionable clothing for all women. Fashion Without Limits has given me, and the students at Syracuse University the opportunity to create greater meaning in our designs. It has allowed me to expand my horizons, push boundaries and negate the limitations of size. I hope that other universities will follow suit and give their students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and push passed standard sizing. I look forward to the day that stores are no longer segregated by size, and I am hopeful by educating students Fashion Without Limits has the power to push the fashion industry one step closer to that ideal.”
2016 FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® STUDENT DESIGNER WINNER: KHARI WALSER
Nicole Wezowicz, a junior fashion design major in the Department of Design, designed the winning gown for the inaugural Fashion Without Limits 12+ EMME Award™. Fashion Without Limits is an initiative launched by supermodel Emme ’85 and the fashion design program to promote the creation of 12+ designs in the junior year. Emme selected Wezowicz’s gown during the VPA/Newhouse Fashion and Beauty Communications Milestone fashion show in early April. Wezowicz will receive $500, and Emme will wear her winning design at a red carpet-event. ”The inspiration behind the dress was to keep it classy, elegant and comfortable,” says Wezowicz.
Fashion Without Limits 12+ EMME Award™ Inaugural Winner: Nicole Wezowicz