I was still decompressing from New York Fashion Week when my feed stopped me mid-scroll. Abisola Omele — the British-Nigerian fashion writer and creator — was announcing a collaboration with Universal Standard, and it wasn’t the kind where a name gets stapled onto a line someone else already designed.
I pay attention when a plus-size woman is invited into the room to shape fashion, not just wear it. So I dug into what she actually made, who gets to wear it, and whether the clothes give us something we genuinely want in our closets.
Who is Abisola Omele?
She’s a fashion writer and commentator whose work has appeared in publications including Harper’s Bazaar, where she writes about the industry’s relationship with size, representation, and women of color. Her previous collaboration with British womenswear brand RIXO helped expand the brand’s sizing up to a UK 26 for the first time — so she’s no stranger to the unglamorous work of getting brands to rethink who gets access to their clothes.
And this time she came to the table with a Pinterest board full of pieces she’d been saving for years: styles that simply had never been made in her style and her size.
“For me, as someone who really loves fashion, I actually have a Pinterest board full of styles that have just never been able to be made in my style and my size even,” Abisola says in Universal Standard’s behind-the-scenes reel about the collection.
It started with one question
When she began working on the collection, Abisola went back to that board and asked herself: “What do I really want right now?” The answer came back fast — a structured suit, and something with really strong, cool buttons on it. Small details, but they tell you a lot: she wasn’t starting from a generic idea of what a plus-size collection “should” look like. She was making the clothes she’d actually been wanting to wear.
“The whole collection in general was just reflective of pieces that are in this little, like, folder of mine,” she says. “Never really made in my size, which is unfortunate, but also a really fun opportunity to go through now and actually see pieces that I can bring to life and make in accessible sizes.”
Every piece, in every size
Here’s the part I suspect a lot of plus-size women will feel in their bones. Universal Standard makes every piece in the collaboration in sizes 00 to 40. All of them. No select items, no “available in some sizes” asterisk.
“Double zero to 40. Incredible,” Abisola says. “All the pieces come in that because so often you’ll see a brand and they’ll do a collab or they’ll do something and I’ll be like, oh, you can only get some pieces in some sizes. I hate that so much. This, it’s like everything is in every size, which is honestly so fun to even say.”
Talk about inclusion is easy. Making the entire collection actually accessible to the women you’re claiming to include takes decisions. For Abisola, it was non-negotiable.
The technical side matters too
When we talk about size-inclusive fashion, the conversation can get stuck on the number on the size chart. But designing for a wider range of bodies requires more than adding sizes to a production run — and Abisola wanted in on that process, not just the result.
“When I obviously had the introductory meetings with the team, finding out the technical aspect and how involved I got to be with the learning as well, I was just like, yeah, this is going to work because we can really make it what I want it to be,” she says. “This isn’t just like a design collection. This was really like a technical collection as well.”
It comes through in the pieces. The collection spans sizes 00 to 40, with prices ranging from $68 to $288 — staples, tailoring, knitwear, skirts, dresses and outerwear, all clearly designed with actual wardrobes in mind. Abisola wanted it comfortable, too: “I wanted it to have those different elements that just add to making it easy to wear. And they were able to do that.” The ponte wrap pants, blazer and skirts have the structure of tailored clothing with enough stretch that you can actually live in them. If I’m investing in a blazer or a skirt, I want staying power — not something that looks good in a campaign and then gets worn exactly once in six months.
The piece that’s most her
“The whole collection fills me,” Abisola says. “If someone was to look at it who really knew my style, the suede-like skirt we have is just so me.” She calls it a very easy go-to piece, and it makes sense when you look at the collection as a wardrobe rather than a set of fashion moments. It’s a starting point for a lot of outfits — which is probably exactly why it won her favorite-piece vote, even with the three-piece and everything else in the mix.
She’s also drawn to the color story: the blue, the chocolate suede, the pink. Those combinations let you introduce these pieces into a wardrobe without abandoning everything already hanging in your closet.
And then, because choosing favorites is apparently hard when you helped make the whole thing, she threw it back on the table: “I don’t know if it’s what I say everyone should go for because I think the whole collection, guys, it’s like seven pieces. Let’s just get the whole thing, you know.” Honestly? I respect it.
Meanwhile, I’m over here planning outfits
The knit sweater in Abisola Blue caught my eye first. That creamy, light blue shade is the kind of soft, polished color I’d been noticing everywhere while exploring the Upper East Side during NYFW — and yes, it gives me the same quiet-luxury feeling I’d been chasing there.
Outerwear is where this collection really lets you have a moment. A deep army-green wool-blend wraparound cape with the matching suede skirt, a crisp white button-up with gold buttons, black pointed boots. Done. The deep burgundy tweed A-line dress takes it in a completely different direction — dinner, a martini meet-up with friends, polished without feeling like you dressed for a formal event.
Style Formula: suede skirt + crisp white button-up + pointed boots = instant, low-effort polished.
Why this feels like a capsule
What I love most is what’s not in the collection: no wild, complicated statement pieces. I love a fashion moment as much as the next person, but there’s something refreshing about pieces I can see myself wearing over and over again. These are the foundations of a capsule wardrobe — the kind of clothes that live in your closet and keep finding their way into your outfits. If I can open my closet on an “I have nothing to wear” morning and pull something from this collection, Universal Standard and Abisola may have just retired that phrase for me a little.
This is clothing designed to be worn, not tucked away waiting for the “right” occasion. A basic tee with Universal Standard jeans for weekend errands. The burgundy tweed dress for dinner. A structured blazer to make jeans feel intentional. The cape and suede skirt turning a simple button-up into a full look. Room for fantasy, and room for real life.
Abisola had a Pinterest board full of clothes she wanted but couldn’t find in her size. Now some of those ideas are hanging on a rack, in sizes 00 to 40. You can shop the full US x Abisola collection at Universal Standard. That feels like more than a collaboration — it feels like a woman finally getting to shop from her own Pinterest board.
Wear it well — Elise