Lena Dunham has debuted her upcoming clothing collaboration with the size-inclusive shopping site 11 Honoré in an interview with The New York Times on Monday, April 5. The actor, author, director, and producer who is 34, will release a “tightly edited collection” of five pieces including a scalloped mini skirt suit, which she modeled for the occasion. The items—under the label “11 Honoré x Lena Dunham”—come in size 12 to 26 and cost between $98 and $298. Despite her new title as a plus-size designer, Dunham said she has “complicated” feelings surrounding the “body positive movement.”
“There’s so much judgment around bigger bodies and I think one of those judgments is that bigger women are stupider,” she said. “They eat too much and don’t know how to stop. Thin women must be discerning and able to use their willpower. Bigger women must be limited in their understanding of the world, and they keep doing things that are bad for them. [I want to ] send the message that being curvy is something to celebrate, not simply handle – it’s not a problem to fix or cover up, but rather a really beautiful celebration of having a lot to give,” she added. “It took me a long time, but I love the fact that my body tells a story of vastness, of ample-ness, of presence. And it’s mine and I’m not going to spend a lifetime apologising for it – I’m going to celebrate it in clothing that says: ‘Here I am.'”
As she put it, “It can be for the privileged few who have a body that looks the way people want to feel positive. We want curvy bodies that look like Kim Kardashian has been up-sized slightly. We want big beautiful butts and big beautiful breasts and no cellulite and faces that look like you could smack them on to thin women.” She added that she does not wear Spanx, and does not design clothes that will need to be worn with shape wear.
“I’ve totally given up on the idea of being any type of impresario or person who had something to say to everyone… Right now the only thing I’m doing is speaking about my own experience,” Dunham told the Times. “So this clothing line is a direct response to my experience.” One last thing: Dunham told the Times that Glenn Close once cut her out of a corset she wore to an industry event: “[Close] had a little butterfly scissor like a friggin’ angel.”