Heathy Curves Back On The Runway

The decrease of "beanpoles" on the latest runway shows was noticeable. New York and London Fashion Weeks have featured more normal-sized women catwalking this year.


Though IMG vice-president Fern Mallis did not attend the CFDA's panel discussion on fashion industry and body image the day before New York Fashion Week, she was glad to notice healthier models on the runway.

"I was here at the Tents, but I haven't seen so many scary-looking girls this time," she commented during the Naeem Khan show.

"I was just at a show sitting with the husband of a designer who said a girl came in for a fitting and her legs looked like poles, and they said, 'No.' It was great at Calvin's show to see some of the old girls back, like Stella Tennant and Kristen McMenamy, and Michael Kors had Frankie Rayder. They're gorgeous girls. They weren't beanpoles, they're still gorgeous."

The same trend was also noticeable at the London Fashion Week. Even Kate Moss walked the Fashion for Relief runway with more body fats. Supermodel Naomi Campbell also welcomed the arrival of many normal-sized women on the catwalks, as well as the plus-size models. She was quoted as saying:

"I think the bigger the better. I don't comment on size, I think if someone is beautiful then they should do what they want to do."

Fashion designer Borun Aksu also noted after his show that larger, healthier models appear to have made a breakthrough on the catwalks:

"Over the last couple of seasons they have become more noticeable. You also notice that these are girls who look healthy and happy."

Mark Fast's runway show has featured four plus-size models led by Crystal Renn, size-16 and one of the most famous plus-size models today.

Meanwhile, giant high street retail store Debenhams has started replacing some of its size ten mannequins with plus size models more suited to the average British woman's size 14-16.

"The average British woman is a size 14 to 16 and it's important that the woman on the street is able to walk into a shop and feel comfortable with the choice available," said Sarah Travers who runs Europe's largest plus-size modeling agency.

Plus-Size Model Vs Skinny Model: "One Size Fits All"

Plus-size model Crystal Renn is pitted against the skinny Jacquelyn Jablonski by posing side-by-side in next month's issue of V Magazine.


The "Size Issue" includes a spread shot by Terry Richardson. It is called "One Size Fits All" and features the fashion models in same looks and similar poses. The poses are said to create a "sizeable" comparison with the purpose of proving that "fashion can flatter any figure."

Witness how the plus-size and the skinny flatter the clothes with their different body measurements:

Jacquelyn Jablonski: 5 ft, 9 in; 32/24/34
Crystal Renn: 5 ft, 9 in; 36/31/41

Does fashion really look good on a plus-size model or a skinny model?
You'll be the judge!

Plus Size Models For V Magazine's January Issue

"Big, little, pint-size, plus-size — every body is beautiful."

V Magazine is reportedly featuring an all-plus size models in its upcoming January issue. Because the decision has come after the hit of the blackface issue in November, some call it the new publicity horse.


The issue will feature Crystal Renn and other plus size models, to be shot clothed and nude by photographers Terry Richardson, Bruce Weber, and Karl Lagerfeld.

Karl Lagerfeld? He is the one who expressed his disagreement of plus size models in October, saying "No one wants to see curvy women. You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly."

Well, seeing curvy women through the lens of the camera is probably his New Year's resolution.

The decision to devote the January 2010 issue of V Magazine to plus size models is a so-called "proof" that curvy women are "also" beautiful. "Big, little, pint-size, plus-size — every body is beautiful. And this issue is out to prove it," says V editor Stephen Gan.

V Magazine is following the steps of Vogue Italia when it incorporated in its publication an issue devoted to Black models. The effect has been phenomenal. It has effectively made a statement that seems to call on giving nonwhite models a fair shot at the modeling industry. But after the sensational release of the "Black" magazine, nothing more is heard of it and no black or nonwhite models have been regularly featured in its publications.

Critics forecast the same for V Magazine. It would devote an issue to plus size models that seemingly calls out to the fashion industry to give curvy women a fair chance at runway shows, ad campaigns, and editorials. But after that, there would be no new idea incorporated into its editorial concepts.

Unlike Glamour Magazine which promises to regularly feature plus size models in its future issues, V Magazine's "plus size models only" issue is just like a trend, a "big" splash with an anticipated patronizing effect using curvy models that it once have shunned.

Plus-Size Models Go Nude For Glamour Magazine

Glamour did it again. In its November issue, the magazine featured not just one but seven gorgeous plus-size models who posed naked for an au naturel photo shoot, and continued the efforts of pushing the boundaries of accepted beauty norms.


Photographed by Matthias Vriens-McGrath, the seven knock-out beauties who went nude for the glossy fashion magazine were Crystal Renn, Lizzie Miller, Kate Dillon, Ashley Graham, Jennie Runk, Amy Lemons, and Anasa Sims.

As part of Glamour's "body image revolution," the nude photo shoot with the plus-size models include an article by Genevieve Field, which discussed the fashion industry's weght obssession. The article cited that the reason why a woman who measured 6 and above is considered plus-size is because they are really too big for the designers' sample clothes, which usually fall between 0 to 4, only.

Aside from featuring nude plus-size models on the magazine, Glamour magazine has mentioned to feature a greater range of body types in its upcoming pages, "including in fashion and beauty stories (traditionally the toughest areas for even the top 'plus-size' models to crack)."

Are Designers Ready For Fuller Models?

Crystal Renn and her fuller figure is talk-of-the-town these days. Probably the most famous plus-size model today, the size 12 model has already made it to four international Vogue editions, Italian Vanity Fair, Italian Elle, Cosmo Girl, and on Harper's Bazaar as the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of the magazine. Aside from magazine appearances, she also had stints on the catwalks for various designers including Jean Paul Gautier in 2006 (photo above) and Dolce & Gabbana.

Is fashion finally ready for a turn-around? Two prominent designers say so.

Roland Mouret thinks that we need to take a hint from the 80s. He tells Guardian:

"I see advertising going back to that powerful 1980s mentality, when girls like Linda (Evangelista) were ideal. Back in the 80s, when supermodels were several sizes larger than top models today, the clothes worked on bigger bodies. They were bright, bold, curve-enhancing."

Antonio Berardi agrees. Having troubles of finding girls with a womanly shape, he shares:

"We have to spend days altering things. We add padding and pieces that work inside the clothes to exaggerate their bodies into a more female form. I don't want all those girls with pale skin who look the same. My family is Italian – I am inspired by a womanly aesthetic."

From Waif To Plus-Size Model, Crystal Renn Shares Her Journey

With her memoir called "Hungry," fashion model Crystal Renn tells her journey from being a starving waif model to becoming a successful plus-size model.


Crystal Renn has been one of the many female models who starve to achieve a size 0, the only measurement that the fashion industry considered valid and model-appropriate not so long ago.

In an interview with The Post, the now size 12 model shares all the hardships that she have to go through just to be skinny and stay in the industry:


Crystal Renn was 14 when a scout told her to trim her "big" figure if she wants to become the next Gisele Bundchen. For a hopeful teen like her who stands 5'8" and weighs 165 pounds, losing weight became a profession. After 2 years of strict dieting (vegetables or plain chicken, only), she was already 5'9" and 95 pounds. That figure earned her the three-year, $250,000 contract with the agency. She dropped high school and moved to Manhattan with other models. To keep her skinny figure, she went to gym and ate less than 1,000 calories a day (vegetables for breakfast, lettuce for lunch, vegetables again for dinner).

However, her dieting soon paid its price. She lost her period and even the appeal to attract and get attracted to boys. At 18, her metabolism began to slow down. She tried to keep starving and eat as little as ever, but still she weighed 130 pounds.

At a Chicago shoot, Crystal Renn finally reached her breaking point. She arrived on the set only to be insulted by the photographer who refused to use her because she's "huge."

When she mumbled "You loved me at the casting four days ago," the producer snapped back "Did you gain 20 pounds in four days? You have to leave."

"It was the most humiliating moment of my life. But I collected myself, walked over to the catered food table and downed five plates of mini-burritos with cheese. I gorged on guacamole. I ate until I felt like I was going to throw up. 'Thanks for the food,' I yelled back and left. On the airplane home, I thought my career was over. I knew I was never going to weigh 95 pounds again. I was done. And for the first time in years, I could breathe."

But the modeling world did not really close its door on Crystal Renn. Arriving back in New York, her agent told her that she can still work as a model and aspire to work for Victoria's Secret (but never for Vogue). The option: becoming a plus-size model.

"I was too hungry to keep starving. I made my decision: I was going to be a plus-size model and let my body be what it was meant to be. When I first started eating normally again, I jumped to a size 16 for a few months before settling into a size 12. It was when I stopped starving myself that I became a famous model."


In 2004, Crystal Renn has posed for Teen Vogue. That same year, she has also fulfilled her dream of landing on the pages of American Vogue.

But making appearances in top magazines is not the only good thing that happen to a fuller, radiant Crystal Renn as she recalls, "At the same time I gained weight, I became interested in men." In 2005, the once asexual model has finally met her husband.

For all these experiences that Crystal Renn have to go through in her journey to become a model, she shares:

"Women are taught that if they get skinny, their lives will be perfect. But real life doesn't work that way. I'm here to prove it."