Model Riley Hemson On Confidence, Community & Inclusivity In An Industry That Still Has A Long Way To Go

Riley Hemson is an undeniable force in Australian fashion. A model and content creator, she’s parlayed an adoring online community into a booming career, launching her own fashion label and traversing the globe as an ambassador for L’Oreal Paris. In person, as on social media, Riley emanates an infectious warmth and confidence. A popular curve model, she’s built a thriving online community of fans drawn to her fierce style and bubbly optimism. Her posts typically offer snippets of her (very stylish) life, which now increasingly includes out-of-this-world experiences, like L’Oreal’s Walk Your Worth runway or the red carpet at Cannes Film Festival.

And while there’s no denying being hot and stylish is part of her appeal, Riley shares a deeper connection with her community, who often look to her for their own confidence boost. “I get messages from people saying, ‘I wore this dress because of you’, ‘I didn’t want to wear a bikini, I haven’t worn one in years, and I’ve gone to the beach with my friends and had a great time. I’m in a bikini because of you’, and that fuels everything I do,” she tells Refinery29 Australia. 

As a plus-size style icon, Riley occupies a place in the public eye that wasn’t available to her as a child of the 90s and noughties. And although Riley is a beacon of body positivity now, she first established herself online almost ten years ago with an Instagram account dedicated to weight-loss. “I guess I had to go on a journey to kind of realise [body confidence] myself,” she admits, adding that her favourite piece of advice now is, “Just be yourself because you'll never be someone else.”

“Looking back, I wish when I was younger I had someone like me to look up to, to be like, ‘Oh, I actually don't need to shrink myself to go and enjoy myself,” she adds.

There’s no denying that Riley is an important figure in Australian fashion. Beloved by both the industry and the public, she has built a thriving online community of more than 650,000 followers on Instagram and almost as many on TikTok. Riley’s social profiles are a testament to her personal style — which she describes as “feminine but a little edgy” — and sartorial skill. However, she says her ability to build a ‘look’ was a skill born out of necessity. 

“I feel like, for me, growing up plus size, it's been hard to fit into clothes. Countless times I would go into stores, and I just wanted to wear what my friends were wearing. I would try things on, and my best friends have the funniest stories of me just in changing rooms just trying to squeeze into things. So, for me, fashion has always been something that I have struggled with,” she shares. “But I feel like, on the flip side of that, it's made [fashion] a creative thing for me. Like, I'll have to wear a skirt as a top and make that a thing. And I think as brands have become more inclusive and there are sizes available, I've still kind of kept that creative flair.”

Riley acknowledges that inclusivity in terms of sizing has definitely improved since her youth, but concedes “we've still got a long way to go”.  “I think it's still at that point where we're kind of clapping for inclusivity, where it should just be the standard,” Riley tells R29. “I feel like around 2020 there was a huge push for brands showing size inclusivity, and that was amazing, and I feel like in the last couple years it's definitely kind of dropped off.”

Riley’s hunch corroborates what’s been found in Vogue’s 2025 Australian Fashion Week inclusivity report, which suggests body diversity in the fashion industry is poor, particularly on the runways. At this year’s Australian Fashion Week, Vogue found only 1.8% of looks were plus-size, and 11% mid-size. This, believe it or not, is better than the runways of Paris, Milan, New York and London, where only 0.3% of looks were plus-size — down from an already paltry 0.8% the season before. Even when some brands appear to be inclusive, Riley points out the reality of their offering can sometimes be quite different.  “You know [brands can be] like ‘look who we've got in our campaign, but we actually don't even have their size or shade available, we just have them in the shoot!’” she says. “It is really clear to me when a brand or a company actually cares about inclusivity and diversity; when it's not just a show for them.”

When I ask her to namecheck some brands she thinks are doing a great job, she points to Jean Paul Gaultier and Kim Kardashian’s SKIMS. “You often see in advertising with bigger sizes, they don't keep it cool! And it's like, we’re in bigger bodies but we're still cool! Let me just be a vibe with the girls!” Riley enthuses, adding that SKIMS nails inclusivity in both fun campaigns and their actual offering. Another one is L’Oreal, for whom Riley is a proud ambassador. “When I think of L'Oreal Paris it's always about, ‘it doesn't matter what you look like, you're worth it’,” she says, citing the beauty brand’s famous slogan. “If every brand could do that, that would be perfect.”

In October, Riley will be heading back to Paris Fashion Week to attend L’Oreal’s renowned Le Défilé show for the second year running. Last year’s fashion show saw the likes of Kendall Jenner and Jane Fonda walk the runway, with Riley in attendance as one of the show’s exclusive invitees. (Riley also led the Australian version of Le Défilé, L’Oreal’s ‘Walk Your Worth’ runway.) When I ask Riley what she loved most about the show, she says: “I just love seeing everyone dressed up and feeling their best.” Both on and off stage and screen, Riley really is a person who loves to celebrate what each individual has to offer. “I think confidence does come from within and we have to, no matter what we look like,  feel that confidence, or at least not let it stop us from doing what we want to do.”