Project Runway Canada winner Sunny Fong is known for using a wider range of sizes for his line, VAWK, but once again, he is ignoring the shorter woman in his casting call for his upcoming Toronto Fashion Week show. While the call does allow for non-runway height women (5’6″ and above, without heels), I cannot consider this truly diverse unless there is a real wide range in height.  And this should include women who are very tall and very short (as in below five feet).

 Screenshot of the casting call

Though I’m glad to see that they’re open to “shorter” models, I would have liked to see the call look for all shapes and sizes, which is in the philosophy of VAWK.  I know that there are many people from the fashion industry who’ll disagree with me, but I don’t think it looks that weird to see a wide range of heights on the runway.  We’ve all seen it before, with celebrities participating in shows.  I don’t think it distracts any more than that “novel” size 14 girl who walks with 20 size 0 models.

A close look at the requirements

I know that it’s up to designers to decide what’s ideal and aesthetically pleasing for their shows, but I really wish that Sunny Fong, the Ben Barry Agency (model agency that is known for its non-traditional sized models) and wouldn’t call this “diverse,” since it’s not including a very large group of women.  Just a thought.