Plus-Size Models Still Controversial, If They’re Female

Last week, in response to Glamour magazine's much-discussed photo shoot with plus-size model Lizzie Miller (and the rag's subsequent feature picturing a dozen similarly figured mannequins), NPR hosted a segment asking the question, "Should fashion reflect fantasy or reality?" Or, more specifically, "is the fashion world really sizing up? And, does it even matter?" The piece included musings from both Glamour's editor-in-chief Cynthia Leive, as well as the Wall Street Journal's Robin Givhan, who recently penned a reaction to the size debate that spawned quite a bit of a frenzy itself. "I think what was revolutionary was the reaction that we got," Leive says of the original Miller photo. "They [the readers] all said, 'more please ... this we relate to'." And did the magazine have anyone speak out against the image?

“We actually did not,” Leive says. So what is Leive’s take on why models seem to have gotten increasingly skinny over the last few years? “There are factors. If you’re talking about traditional fashion stories, limited sizes make it more difficult to feature a wide range of body types. One of the things that we run into are the sample sizes [magazines are typically shooting clothes before a full range of sizes for a collection piece have been made]. That sample is generally pretty small; it’s in the size 2 range. That often dictates the size models you see in fashion stories,” she explains. And that goes for runways too.

“I think it’s probably 9/10s tradition,” Levine says of designers choosing especially slim models (the seasoned argument being that they’re there to show the clothes, not their bodies in the clothes). That said, it’s no secret that in recent seasons some designers have decreased their sample sizes from 4’s to 2’s and even 2’s to 0’s. It wasn’t always this way, says Givhan. “I think that what happened was in the 1980s when the average sample size was a 6, that was followed by the era of the waifs. And, slowly the eye adjusted to that thin physique. And they were followed by Eastern European models who were even thinner. The fashion industry has had the incredible shrinking model. It took that for people to wake up,” Givhan says.

Will fuller-figured women like Michelle Obama or Beyonce’s involvement in fashion help the industry move towards a more accessible body type? “That doesn’t necessarily translate into the way that [designers] view women in general. They’re happy to make a special garment for a Beyonce or a Michelle Obama but that hasn’t translated into their expanding their sizes or denim designers working to accommodate a curvier derriere,” Givhan says. The writer also adds a new issue into the mix (one sparked from a listener’s email): “I don’t think the average man looks at a male model who has the body type of a 12-year-old and thinks I need to stay at the gym and cut back on my meals to achieve that.” In other words, while prepubescent, super-skinny male models have been the standard almost as long as their female counterparts, male models’ figures aren’t nearly as controversial.