Karoline Vitto

Flesh and Fabric: Karoline Vitto Is Reshaping Fashion’s Silhouette

words by Teneshia Carr

At a time when the fashion industry is increasingly scrutinized for its performative gestures toward inclusivity, Karoline Vitto stands apart not just in form but in intention. Her work doesn’t merely accommodate bodies that have been historically excluded; it celebrates them or, more precisely, it frames them. In Vitto’s world, the curve of an armpit or the softness of a belly isn’t an imperfection to hide. It is a design principle.

“I’ve always been interested in what happens when the body is exposed,” she says. “Especially the areas we’ve been told to hide. What happens when we highlight those instead?”

The Brazilian-born, London-based designer made headlines when she presented her first solo show in Milan, supported by Dolce & Gabbana. We knew we were in for something special when we saw Ashley Graham come around the corner to open the runway show. Still, it was the entire range of bodies, each dressed in body-conscious silhouettes punctuated by hardware and intention, that made the biggest statement. Vitto’s aesthetic isn’t just sensual; it’s structural. Flesh is framed with the same reverence usually reserved for jewels.

“We like to try things on as we design,” she explains. “Most of the team is made up of women, and it’s always been natural for us to be a part of the design process as wearers.”

This intimacy with the work is reflected in every detail of her collections. There’s a practicality to her process and a desire to know, firsthand, how a garment lives on the body and yet the result feels transcendent. From the beginning, her vision was born from necessity and experimentation. During her MA at the Royal College of Art, she developed a project titled The Body as Material, interrogating what it means to consider the body itself a vital part of the design equation.

“The clothes are only part of the language,” she says. “The body underneath changes everything.”

After graduating in 2019, the brand took shape in her own image literally. With limited access to fit models during the early pandemic days, Vitto began creating for and on herself. She sketched looks inspired by influencers, artists and strangers whose bodies reflected a reality so often denied a place in fashion. Her designs didn’t aim to hide, flatter, or erase. They framed. The metallic hardware that now defines much of her aesthetic came from this instinct to adorn the flesh. “We decorate our hands with rings. Why not decorate a roll, a fold, a curve?” It’s not about provocation. It’s about honoring reality.

Of course, forging a path so radical in its simplicity hasn’t been without its challenges. “In the early days, I was told buyers wouldn’t go for it and that only ‘brave’ women would wear the pieces,” she recalls. But she trusted her instinct, and more importantly, she trusted her audience. “People bought it,” she says with quiet defiance.

Today, the brand is supported by BFC’s NewGen program, with upcoming collections slated for Fashion Week. Still, Vitto keeps her goals grounded. “I just want to hire more people,” she says. “True expansion, to me, is about building an ecosystem a team that believes in the vision and grows with it.”

Her long-term dream? To take the brand back home to Brazil. “I grew up watching Rio Fashion Week and Brazilian swimwear designers,” she says. “I didn’t know what Dior was, but I knew Agua de Coco. That was my fashion lexicon.”

That early exposure to sensuality, to a culture where the body is visible and celebrated (albeit often within rigid ideals), shaped her approach to femininity. “When I go back to Brazil now, and someone wears one of my designs on the beach, no one blinks. They get compliments, sure. But it’s just normal.”

This normalization of visibility, of beauty across size, of flesh as form is at the heart of what Karoline Vitto is building. It is not a brand rooted in trend, but in truth. And that truth is nuanced.

“Some days I wear baggy clothes. Some days I wear cut-out pants. Both of those people are me,” she says.

And what does success look like for the women who wear her clothes? “It’s about knowing your journey. Recognizing your wins and your failures. And choosing a path that feels true.”

To emerging designers, she offers pragmatic wisdom: “Don’t wait for someone to discover you. Be proactive. Apply to things. Show up. And be nice.”

In a world that too often demands women shrink to fit, Karoline Vitto is designing a different kind of space. One where the body doesn’t need to ask permission. One where fashion doesn’t demand bravery, just honesty. One where a curve is not a concession but the starting point.