Tess Holliday Calls Out the ‘Double Standard’ Of The Strawberry Dress Gaining Popularity On Thin Bodies

Aug 27, 2020

In an Instagram post from earlier this month, model Tess Holliday, 35, addressed prejudices against plus-sized people after the $490 strawberry dress she was criticized for wearing to the Grammy Awards went viral months later on TikTok.

"To sum it up: our society hates fat people, especially when we are winning," Holliday wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of her donning the dress.

The 35-year-old plus-sized model donned the pink frock by designer Lirika Matoshi when she walked the red carpet in January, but she's hardly gotten any credit for the popularity of the dress, which has taken over social media this summer. 

Holliday shared photos and videos of herself wearing the look while calling out the double standard that plus-size people face after being listed as one of the "worst-dressed" at the event the Grammy Awards earlier this year.

"I like how this dress had me on worst dressed lists when I wore it in January to the Grammys, but now bc a bunch of skinny ppl wore it on TikTok everyone cares," she wrote on Instagram and Twitter. She thanked Matoshi and her stylist Meaghan O’Connor for making her "feel like a princess seven months ago."

Holliday's fans took to the comments to praise her red carpet look, with one woman saying the model gave her the confidence to buy the dress. "I just finally purchased this dress in May but I saw it for the first time when you wore it and that’s what made me want it so badly!" wrote one user.

Matoshi told the New York Post that she is working 24/7 to fulfill a 738 percent increase in orders of the dress from July to August. While speaking with Vulture, Holliday explained she had no idea the dress had become a viral sensation until a friend sent her a Twitter thread about it.

"This person was like, 'I find it really ironic that Holliday wore this dress at the Grammys in January, and no one gave a s**t until slender people on TikTok were wearing it.' I looked, saw that it was in fact trending," she wrote. "I really started to examine, Well, why is this so popular now? Why are people acting like it’s new? That’s when I started to get a little frustrated." Holliday added that for weeks after the Grammys her "inbox was flooded" with messages from people who slammed the dress, but it's not the criticism that bothers her. The model's frustration is with the fashion industry's treatment of plus-size people.

“This is the perfect example of erasure that fat and plus-size people deal with in fashion. We are constantly not seen as trendy, glamorous, any of that,” she told People.

Holliday expressed her gratitude for the support she's received, writing on Twitter:

"Hey everybody, I wasn’t expecting the post about my strawberry dress to blow up the way it did. Thank you to everyone who has shared my post in solidarity. Like it or not, please understand that just because you have never been shamed for your size, doesn’t make it less valid."

What is your take on the dress and do you think Tess' frustration is justified? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this along.