Hats off to Ralph Lauren, for having the guts to hire a plus-size model for its latest campaign. But is Australian model Robyn Lawley really any closer to the likes of you and me? The 23-year-old model may wear a size 12, but towers over the average woman at 6 feet 2 inches tall!
Lawley, who started off as a mainstream model, according to an article in ABC News that she battled with diets and disordered eating before she finally found her stride at 19, as a plus-sized model with the Wilhelmina Modelling Agency.
“I got a huge amount of pressure to diet," she said recently on Good Morning America (GMA). "And my body, it was such a battle for me to do that because I’m such a big bone, and I’m tall and I’m broad. I really struggled to maintain that size.”
Maybe someday we'll get to the stage where there will only be models, with no distinction between the plus and the minus. It's a day Lawley herself longs for, and she will no doubt prove instrumental in the process.
“I believe [plus sized is] a tag we should do without. It segregates us from the mainstream fashion world, which means we only go to castings and jobs when our size is requested. I believe all runways and print pieces should use an array of sizes. After all, who is buying the clothes in the end?”
Lawley is paving the way for change in a world of size zeros. And while it's refreshing, arguably it's a long path.
"There are so many plus-size models in New York doing so well at the moment," she said on GMA, "and it's only going to get better."
We hope so. Meantime, kudos to Lawley for bringing curves back to the fashion magazine cover!
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