We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
Started with a T-shirt, now she’s here. After debuting one stunner of a tee in collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier back in December, the former Gossip frontwoman (and catwalk killer! See: Marc Jacobs Spring ’16) is ready to send forth her eponymous plus-size clothing line into the world. Debuting on Monday, the 21 styles encapsulate the kind of change in fashion that Ditto has long been a vocal and unapologetic advocate for. As the O.G. Arkansas punk rocker tells it to Vogue.com: “The Gossip ended, and I was on my own and was just like, ‘You know what? This cow’s ready to milk! Let’s do this.’ ” Previously, Ditto has lent her inimitable personal style to capsule collections for British mass-market plus-size line Evans, but longed, unsurprisingly for a more hands-on level of involvement: “[It] was fun, but there’s a lot of compromising you had to do. Since it’s the high street, you don’t necessarily have any say over what’s being made. I really wanted to do something that you could wear and be proud of, that’s not a ’90s throwback, not an ’80s throwback—it’s just what it is.”
If mainstream plus-size offerings often skew toward the generically safe, then Ditto’s are anything but. Covering U.S. sizes 14 through 24, the styles are enough to make the most retiring shopper want to channel their inner ass-kicking femme à la Ditto. There are cheeky lipstick prints; lamé tops; and blush satin, curve-hugging dresses, ranging in price from a $65 T-shirt on up to $395 for the most luxe, Studio 54–worthy jumpsuit. Shapeless they’re surely not—one sculptural skirt, Ditto noted, “instead of the idea of being ‘flattering,’ is just really interesting and cool.” When the designs find a fan base among even those who don’t already adore Ditto herself, it will be because she’s created them with a firsthand knowledge of what works and what doesn’t. With high-street retailers, she offers, “there’s no real thought about the pattern—like, what could you make for a body like mine. I don’t think there are a lot of plus-sized people behind it, and I don’t think that’s fair.”
Ditto’s longtime love for DIYing thrifted clothes came into play from the moment she began sketching garments in the earliest stages of the products; that involvement continued every step of the way, even through the lookbook shoot, which Ditto has modeled for (“I like pictures, cause I’m a ham!”) and which was styled by Katie Grand. Grand and Ditto’s affiliation goes back to the latter’s earliest days in the limelight. Ditto recalls: “I trust her so much. The first really big, fancy-pants, high-budget photo shoot I did was with her. She likes to remind me that I almost canceled it, and she was like, ‘You cannot.’ I was really young, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this!’ Because of who I am, and my body, being a fat person, I was just really not into that because I didn’t trust people, but I learned to trust [Katie] early on.” That trust comes through in the pictures: Ditto looks glam and at ease. When we spoke to the newly minted designer on the eve of New York Fashion Week’s chaos, she sounded rested and ready to take on the world: “[As a creative], I try to be as positive about it as I can. My friend said to me one time, when I had to go to a photo shoot and have a press day really early, straight off the plane, he was like, ‘Babes—it’s not the factory.’ And I was like, ‘You’re fucking right. It sure as hell isn’t the factory.’ My mother works in a factory, and I’m going to try and remember that any time it gets too hard or people’s egos are . . . whatever. You’ve got to remind yourself: Shit is tight.”
Beth Ditto clothing will be available globally starting February 15 on bethditto.com, selfridges.com, and in-store at Selfridges.