Crystal Renn wrote a little essay for the Independent in response to Britain’s Next Top Model judge Julien MacDonald panning plus-size models like herself. She says a model is still a model, independent of size.
Part of the problem is this focus on straight sizes and plus sizes. It is creating an “us and them” mentality. We need to change the way we approach the whole thing, and do away with these terms. All we are is a bunch of models, no matter what size. Among women at large there’s no separation into straight sizes and plus sizes. The term “plus-size” leaves the public confused. In the industry a size eight is considered plus. In the wider world women don’t think like that.
Mistakes in the past have been to base things on extremes. Lots of shows have had size zero and size two girls followed by really curvaceous 16s. When that happens all you see is the size of the girl. The runway needs to be like the street: a variety. If you have more variety then the focus isn’t on the size.
She’s right: Models who are bigger than a size 2 shouldn’t be cast as publicity ponies to be gawked at, whether that is the intent of the designer or not. However, it’s just as easy to gawk at most runway models, who remain shockingly, distractingly thin.
Crystal Renn: Women as a whole don’t separate sizes [Independent UK]
