Plus is the New Six

Several months ago I had a moment on my soapbox after seeing a beautiful spread by full-figured model Crystal Renn. The post, seen here, has been one of if not the most popular on this blog – which is generally chock full of you standard rail-thin models and movie stars (I’m somewhat ashamed to say). And now this: Lizzie Miller

Lizzie Miller, the 20-year-old model in question, agrees that it’s astonishing that, at 5ft 11in and 12.5 stone she’s considered a “plus size” model. “It’s sad,” she says. “In the industry anything over size six is considered a plus-size.” Miller, who is around a US size 12-14 (that is, either average or slightly below average) lost about 60lb when she was 13 but today she is considered too large to model for plus-size lines Marina Rinaldi (she says, “they like girls who are an 8-10″) or Elena Miro. She says that the overwhelming reaction to the tiny photograph, buried on page 194 of Glamour magazine “shows that the world is hungry to see pictures of normal women.”

One wouldn’t have thought this would be news. As Miller says, “pretty much every picture in a magazine or ad is airbrushed . . . I don’t think the public understands how much smoke and mirrors are involved in making women look like that.” Source

(12.5 stone = 175 lbs, for we yanks)

It seems folks are really starting to take this weight thing head on. Could there really be some revolution in the fashion industry? Are people fed up with coke-fed skeleton’s being the style standard? Well… not quite. That day will come when a 150-lb model does NOT make an international splash simply for her size.

So all you fashionistas and fashionistos out there starving yourself for fashion week or any other silly event, carry on with your starvation and purging… for now. Mmmm, can’t you hear the lovely sound of chew & spit?

Tags: crystal renn, fashion and weight, glamour, lizzie miller, plus size, weight