Plus size models took to the catwalk on Saturday at London Fashion Week in the newest collection from Mark Fast, the British knitwear designer. The show came not long after fresh arguments started in New York over what fashion models should weigh.

The British designer was at the center of this same issue last September during London Fashion Week. A stylist was forced to deny that she walked out of his show due to him using models that wore bigger sizes than most. British size 12 Hayley Morley was one of the models at that show, and Fast also used her in this year’s show.

Fast’s new collection was more conservative than last season, but the natural curves of the women were clearly defined. As one of the most up and coming designers in London, his collection was more practical for Autumn/Winter 2010. It featured tight dresses with detailing around the hem and neck, as well as matching swaying skirts and cropped capes.

The dispute over how much a model should or should not weigh lays heavily in the fashion industry this year. It all started with Monika Jagaciak, a 16-year-old model that wears the standard sample size 0. On the other end of the weighing scale, Coco Rocha has complained that she is being overlooked as a model due to weighing too much at 110lbs.

However, Britain is praising stores for revealing British size 16 mannequins in their windows for a limited time to show that a majority of women in the UK are between the sizes of 14 and 16. The head of creative department for Debenhams, Mark Stevens, says that they are proud to offer a variety of choices for women of every age, shape and size at their stores, and they wanted to reflect that in their windows.

Tags: London Fashion Week, London Fashion Week 2010, plus size models