How plus-size models fell out of fashion

Ashley Graham walks the runway at the Dolce & Gabbana
show during Milan Fashion Week in February - Getty

Fashion is fickle. Jean shapes change, hemlines rise, and colours fall in and out of favour. Deleterious to our bank balance as these machinations may be, they’re just part of the game. Of more concern, however, is an increasing trend for body shapes to fall in and out of favour.

While most women are sanguine about altering the shape of their jeans, their body shape is more immutable. No woman should have to change her body for fashion: in an ideal world, fashion should change to accommodate their bodies. After decades of thin models dominating the international catwalks, those not born with “model proportions” (5ft 9in, dress size UK 4-6) have been heartened to see more body diversity in recent seasons.

When Vogue, once a gatekeeper of slimness, featured plus-size models Paloma Elsesser, Precious Lee and Jill Kortleve on the cover of its April issue and pronounced them “a new kind of supermodel”, it seemed as though fashion was finally embracing the inclusivity it purported to embrace in theory, but rarely in practice.

By Laura Craik.

Full story at Yahoo News