FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS

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Fashion Without Limits® Mission 

  • To strengthen the impact of fashion design, positive body image and self-esteem for 100 million in the US who can’t find enough well fitting lifestyle appropriate apparel above a size 14.

  • Reduce a 62+billion-dollar apparel return crisis (in the USA alone) and

  • Boost our national economy by directing billions of dollars back into the supply/demand chain in having 0-26 sizes in a majority of fashion lines.


WHAT IS FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS?

Fashion Without Limits (FWL) was founded in 2013 by Emme, a 1985 Syracuse University graduate, with co-founding Professor Jeffrey Mayer and Associate Professor Todd Conover. Developed within the Fashion Program at Syracuse University’s School of Design, FWL ran at the University until 2024.

Over four years, students received an inclusive fashion education covering pattern making, draping, illustration, design, and grading for sizes 0-24+. The junior year culminated in a competition naming the Fashion Without Limits Designer of the Year. Today, Professor Mayer continues to teach inclusive fashion design in Syracuse’s fashion design program.

FASHION WITHOUT LIMITS® AWARDS

The Fashion Without Limits® Student Designer Award winners receive a cash gift of $500, and Emme (or another top model of choice) wear the winning design to either an awards ceremony, a red carpet event, or in a magazine’s editorial spread to give winning designers coveted press tears of their work prior to 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. Awarded: Corning Glass Fashion Without Limits® Goddess Statue

The Fashion Without Limits® Professor Award is given to the professor who exemplifies the mission of Fashion Without Limits, who shares their passion, enthusiasm in teaching a fresh new and invigorated way for an inclusive fashion education to their young designers. Awarded: Corning Glass Fashion Without Limits® Goddess Statue

The Fashion Without Limits® Industry Designer Award is given to the designer who clearly connects and embraces celebrating a woman’s body™ and those of men and juniors in new and innovative fashion outlets.   The winner is chosen based on the designer’s innovative design incorporating effortless style, impeccable fit and commercial viability factor. Awarded: Corning Glass Fashion Without Limits® Goddess Statue

The Fashion Without Limits® Media Award is given to the media outlet, editor, reporter, blogger, producer, data researcher or journalist who, in a professional, fact based, data driven and inclusive manner delivers ground breaking and shape shifting coverage within the fashion and beauty industry celebrating a woman’s body ™, and those of men and juniors lacking apparel choices in current fashion outlets around the world. Awarded: Corning Glass Fashion Without Limits® Goddess Statue

 Fashion Without Limits® Retailer of The Year Award is given to that retailer who best in industry has an inclusive fashion reflection of their customer in design, presentation, fit and overall messaging online and/or in store. Awarded: Corning Glass Fashion Without Limits® Goddess Statue

Fashion Without Limits® Award: Corning Glass Goddess Statue

Created by Corning Glass Sculptor, Kat Ayers

ACCORDING TO BUSINESS INSIDER...

According to Business Insider, “plus-sizes … account for 67 percent of the population;” a recent survey of more than 5,000 U.S. women by online retailer ModCloth 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.”

The inaugural “Fashion Without Limits” competition to design an evening dress will be announced to junior fashion design majors at the beginning of the fall 2014 semester. The students will work on their designs throughout the academic year, with the winning design announced at the conclusion of the spring 2015 semester.

The student designers currently work exclusively with dress forms donated by Wolf Form Co. in Englewood, N.J., the premier designer and manufacturer of standard and custom handmade forms in the fashion industry. The dress forms allow the students to design for sizes 16, 18, 20 and 22 along with size 2, 4, and 6 for a fully integrated inclusive fashion education.

In addition to curriculum changes and the competition, the fashion design program plans to offer a related speaker series. The program is currently fundraising for the purchase of fabric and other associated costs to support these endeavors. To make a donation to the “Fashion Without Limits” design initiative, visit http://vpa.syr.edu/alumni/get-involved/donate. (If you choose to give via our secure, online giving site, please specify “Fashion Without Limits” in the “Gift Information” section.) For more information about the initiative, contact the VPA Office of Advancement at 315-443-7095.

UNLEASHING THE CREATIVE POTENTIAL OF AMERICAN FASHION DESIGNERS

Emme - Photo Courtesy of Nitsan Tal

“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 Professor Jeffrey Mayer and 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.”