Why 'Plus Size' Models Represent The Worst

Of The Fashion Industry

Fashion is often associated with impossibly stick-thin models, bringing with the stereotype extremely
unrealistic beauty standards. Add to that the advent of technology and the ability to photoshop away
wrinkles, cellulite, skin discolouration -- or anything natural -- and you have a very real crisis in the fashion
industry.

In the last few years, however, there has been an attempt to offset the size zero phenomenon, with ‘plus
size’ models being a real thing. The most famous amongst this new crop of model is Ashley Graham, who
cemented her status as a supermodel this year at Michael Kors Collection by walking with Carolyn Murphy
and Joan Smalls while wearing Kors’s glamorous sportswear. Others include Candice Huffine and Marquita
Pring, who too featured on the runway this year in Prabal Gurung’s feminist influenced collection.

Across the pond in Europe, a few shapely figures made it to Dolce & Gabbana’s show, most notably
Alessandra Garcia-Lorido. Katy Syme and Stella Duval strutted their stuff in Paris at H&M’s see-now-buy-
now show. “The world over designers are now walking the talk, no pun intended,” says Shruti Joseph, a
design student. “Fashion has forever been at a complete disjunction with reality, with models representing
impossible standards. This is slowly changing, and it’s refreshing to see this change play out on the
runways of the biggest fashion weeks in the calendar year.”

So what exactly is a ‘plus-size’ model? Interestingly, the models who qualify for this tag are average weight
and size in the real world. They are generally a size 12-16 -- which is the average size of women in most
countries across the world. ‘Plus size’ models are also required to be over 5 ft 8 inches, and the very fact
that they are referred to as ‘plus size’ is an indication that the fashion industry isn’t ready to transform into a
more diverse and/or exclusive enterprise.

“Plus size models represent everything that’s wrong with the fashion industry and the beauty standards the
industry sets, while pretending to be coated in the veneer of diversity and change. Fashion continues to
promote extremely unhealthy beauty standards, and in fact, has made this all even worse by labelling
women who are average size and weight as PLUS SIZE,” says Swati Mehra, a New Delhi-based lifestyle
writer. “It’s like saying that ‘normal’ is size zero -- and women who conform to that size are considered
regular models -- and anything a couple of sizes bigger is ‘plus size’, whereas in real life plus size models
are just average size healthy women. I don’t understand how people can be naive enough to think that this
tag represents a form of progress in the fashion industry.”

Source: https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/8/11349/Why-Plus-Size-Models-
Represent-The-Worst-Of-The-Fashion-Industry