Eden Miller presented the Spring/Summer 2014 collection for her clothing line Cabiria last week. This small designer wouldn't necessarily be the subject of much talk, except that her line was the first to show at New York Fashion Week that featured clothing exclusively for plus-sized women.


When the news was announced, Miller wrote on her site, "This is such a huge milestone for legitimizing plus fashion, and incredibly exciting for me personally." But before she showed, some were skeptical the line would make much of a difference, like The Cut's Kurt Stoller, who told the Atlantic Wire that "Truthfully the fashion schedule is so busy...I think it's really hard for a small brand to break through at something like New York Fashion Week."

"It's better to get people's attention in the off-season. It's really hard for any brand to break through the noise that is New York Fashion Week," Stoller added. That's fair; Miller's name is nowhere on the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week website because her collection was part of a larger show by Fashion Law Institute fashion show that featured multiple designers. Professor and founder of the Institute Susan Scafidi told the New York Daily News that, "When I first met Eden, she was wearing one of her dresses. My first thought was not, 'nice plus line', but 'nice collection — I wish she made it in my size.'"


Miller might have an advantage over her fellow designers, in that she's gotten tons of press for the historical nature of her collection. And she's aware of the pressure. "I need to do this right,'' she told Al Jazeera. "I want to be one of the designers at Fashion Week so that I can open the door for other designers who are valid choices to be there.''

Like previous seasons, Spring/Summer 2014 Cabiria was all dresses, with heavy patterns and bold colors and Miller featured women of color, which, you know, is always nice to see. If you dig it, past collections are available online.