Features

“I don’t think you ready for this jelly,” chants Beyonce, waggling her voluptuous hips. Kim Kardashian poses seductively on the red carpet, her ample, orb-like backside splashed across magazine pages. “Real women have curves!” screams the slogan of a marketing campaign. It is the Plus Size revolution, the war cry for well-rounded women. But one industry tends to shy away from the subject – the size zero world of high fashion and modelling. SIOBHAN DOWNES meets Dunedin model and Otago PhD student, Teri, and her agent, Aliana McDaniel, and discusses the politics of Plus Size.
To be in the fashion industry, it seems, you have to be really good at maths. In my quest to define Plus Size, I was bombarded with numbers; measurements, sizes, proportions, ratios, inches, kilograms, centimetres. In an industry where size matters, labels on clothes become labels of identity. This is especially true for Plus Size models, who are literally identified by the little numbers stitched onto those labels.
 

I spoke with Aliana McDaniel of Ali McD Modelling Agency, and model Teri, who, as Critic goes to print, has just modelled in iD Dunedin Fashion Week 2011 as the event’s first ever Plus Size model. The tricky thing about Plus Size, they say, is that there is no finite definition of what size it actually is – it can encompass a wide range of measurements. So at what number does the fashion industry decide to add that plus sign? “Basically, Plus Size is anything size 10 and over,” explains Teri. “Fashion industry ‘Plus Size’ is different to commercial ‘Plus Size’, which is around a size 16.” Aliana elaborates that “a Plus Size model would be size 12 to 14, and upward. There’s this area in between that isn’t quite ‘Plus’, but it’s a commercial model size.”
 

Considering the average Kiwi girl is now a size 14, we are definitely a “Plus Size” nation. This is a growing trend apparent in most First World countries, where eating habits and lifestyles have changed dramatically from those of previous generations, resulting in a rise in the average dress size. Yet this transformation of body shape has barely been reflected in the fashion industry – in fact, as we have gotten bigger, the models have gotten smaller. It took until 2009 for a Plus Size designer label to be allowed to show at New Zealand Fashion Week. In the same year, designer Mark Fast decided to use three models of sizes between 12 and 14 to model his collection at London Fashion Week. When Fast revealed this decision, his creative designer and stylist were so disgusted at the idea of larger models featuring in the collection that they resigned on the spot, citing “creative differences”. It was an event that highlighted the prejudice in the fashion industry against Plus Size.

 
It is on the runways of these prestigious fashion shows where the division between “size zero” models and Plus Size models becomes apparent. As a rule, designers cut their clothes for fashion shows in tiny sample sizes. “The samples are usually American size 0 to 2, the equivalent to New Zealand size 6-8,” says Aliana. If you don’t fit these sizes, you don’t get to model. “If there are other sizes available, then a Plus Size might be able to model, but…it’s restricted,” adds Teri. It all comes down to the hard fact that it is simply easier and cheaper to make clothes to fit standardised, tiny models. This size zero culture has also been partly shaped by the accessibility to young models after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Influential New York-based modelling agent David Bonnouvrier developed this argument, saying that, during this time, “agencies and scouts were able to start travelling to countries that had just recently opened their borders and lifted the travel restrictions of their cities. As opposed to the members of the European Union and the U.S, which had mandatory laws regarding schooling and minor labour, these countries…had very few of those.” The models that came from these areas were barely teenagers, and their waif-like, undeveloped, and exploited bodies set the standard for the future mould of modelling.

 
Aliana believes that designers are to blame in continuing this unrealistic obsession with thin. “It’s generated from the people in that hub of fashion, what comes from Europe – abnormally thin models. Most models can’t obtain that size. But designers dictate what sizes the models are…it’s a small group of people that have a huge pool, and it’s really quite disappointing.” Although many designers claim to be accepting of Plus Size models, and allege to be pushing for change in the industry to represent normal-sized women, she says their intentions are generally insincere. “What designers say to the media… is a lie. It’s seen as slightly ‘cool’ to have a Plus Size model on occasion, but it’s not consistent. It’s just that fad for their own brand, it’s not necessarily about change.” Aliana uses the example of Sophie Dahl, who was once the epitome of the ideal Plus Size model, as an example of the superficiality of what the industry sees as “change”. “She was considered different because she was a size 12. I mean, it’s actually pathetic. And now she’s tiny and thin again, and probably underweight.”

 
Teri has experienced first-hand the struggles of trying to make it as a Plus Size model.  She acknowledges that designers “don’t want to commit” to what she represents as a fuller-figured model. “It’s disappointing for me,” Aliana confesses, “because my agency doesn’t breed anorexics, and I want my models to be healthy. But it’s like fighting a losing battle.” Teri attributes half of her success to Aliana’s support over the past few years. Her achievements have included making it through the first round of New Zealand’s Next Top Model last year, and her latest conquest is iD Dunedin Fashion Week. “I have pushed for Teri for three years,” reveals Aliana, “This is the first time they’ve ever put a Plus Size model in.” “Yeah, it's a massive deal,” Teri agrees, “They’re finally going to see that it’s all good.” She says that it has been important to stay true to herself in an industry where many girls would succumb to the pressure to change. “I’ve grown into myself, and embraced myself, and I’m happy. I’ve found a haircut I can rock, and things like that.” She hopes that she can be a role model for other girls – “I don’t diet, but I remain toned. I’m not about to be lazy just because there might be a market for bigger girls.”

 
One of the biggest misconceptions of Plus Size models is that they are overweight. Detractors argue that Plus Size models are sending the message that it is ok to be “fat”. Said one columnist from the Herald Sun, “The truth is, few women over a size 14 are in a healthy weight range…it’s much easier to accept the pro-fat manifesto than hit the treadmill.” This belief that Plus Size models are unhealthy examples has much to do with the ambiguity of the term “Plus Size”, and its different meanings in different contexts. We have been conditioned to equate “Plus Size” with “fat”. It does not help that weight-loss reality shows such as The Biggest Loser are categorised as “Plus-Sized TV”. “You have the critics who get mixed up between a Plus Size model and a larger person,” explains Teri. But the majority of Plus Size models are far from “fat”, and far from unhealthy. Not just any curvy woman can be a Plus Size model. The requirements for potential Plus Size models are perhaps even stricter than those for conventional models. “To be a Plus Size model, you have to be more than most models,” describes Aliana. “The criteria for Plus Size is quite difficult. You have to be extremely well proportioned and beautiful. A lot of women put weight on around their bottoms and tummies and lose that hourglass shape. A really good Plus Size model retains that shape.”
 

It all comes back to a question of labels. “It’s not even necessarily ‘Plus Size’, because I think that’s just putting a label on someone,” states Aliana. “I think it’s just about a healthy philosophy on what’s beautiful. What is healthy and beautiful is so many things, so many sizes.” So, why does the fashion industry remain so narrow-minded? Why are healthy, realistically sized models like Teri still given the misleading label of “Plus Size”? Why is it that size zero models continue to be paraded down the runways, despite the insistence that change is occurring? Aliana believes that the real change lies – ironically – in numbers. “I think it takes the industry to stand up – it takes a community of people to stand up and go, this is really important.”
 

SIDEBAR: Critic spoke to Francesca from Dunedin’s City Chic, the new Plus Size fashion retailer for young women. We asked her what “Plus Size” means. “To me, ‘Plus Size’ means beautiful – voluptuous, sexy, and confident.” She prefers to use the term ‘curvy’ though – it's better for self-image. For City Chic, that’s what it’s all about – making girls size 14-22 feel good about themselves. “Our sizing system is a little different to most other shops. We start from ‘XS’, rather than calling it ‘size 14’. It’s great for confidence.” City Chic recently debuted as the first Plus Size label at Melbourne Fashion Week, and it seems that in New Zealand too, there is a real market for the fashion that City Chic offers “curvy girls”.