Manifesta is a company that was proudly founded upon the idea of body positivity before the term body positivity was an everyday phrase. In fact, the founder, Rachel Blumenfeld, had never heard the phrase body positivity until after Manifesta was launched, but she knew that she wanted her company to embrace the same ideals.
Because of this, Blumenfeld sought to design clothes that fit and flattered women with curvy bodies of various sizes – ranging from size 2 to size 28 because she didn’t believe that “positive” sizes and “straight” sizes should be sold separately, or should offer different styles. She knew that styles could be designed that were flattering for a wide group of women. So instead of using a size 2 fit model to design clothes, she used a size 12, and then tried the styles on various sizes, making adjustments until the clothes worked for any curvy woman in the company’s size range. The clothing designs prioritized women of different sizes being able to feel confident while exercising and not having to adjust their clothes while they moved so that they could fully enjoy their workouts.
Additionally, Blumenfeld decided that she didn’t want conventional sizes on the tags. Many women seem to calculate their worth as a human being based on what their clothing’s tag says, so instead of having a “hierarchy” of sizes, Blumenfeld chose to use flower names to identify the different sizes of clothing. Because who wouldn’t be proud of being a daisy?
