In every fashion magazine it seems, there’s always an article “The Best ____ For Your Body”. That blank can be jeans, dresses, swimsuits or just about anything. In those spreads you’ll see “Petite, Athletic, Long Legs, Short Waist, etc” all modeled on girls/models no bigger than a size 2 (maybe 4) with coordinating body shapes, and then there’s always that box that is for the “Curvy” girls which is typically modeled by a plus-sized woman and the clothes displayed are always from a plus sized store. I am a curvy girl, but I am not plus-sized. So do I follow the size two advice, or do I follow the size 16 advice?
Woman all over the world experience this same conundrum looking at models. Most of us aren’t thin enough to relate to the wispy runway models, but we don’t need to take cues from plus-sized girls either. Well now there might be hope for us “in-between” girls.
There’s a new modeling agency in town called Natural Model Management. Started by former plus-sized model Katie Halchishick, this is an agency whose motto is “Healthy is the new Skinny.” Models are in the 6-10 size range. Katie started this agency from inspiration from her days of being a plus-sized model when she told she wasn’t ‘big enough.’ Only after hitting 200 lbs and a size 14, was she pulling in six figures.
Any other “average” sized women see what I see above? Yes, I would love to look like the second picture, but I relate the most to the third and would feel confident that swimsuit would work on me after seeing it on a woman with a similar shape and size. Unfortunately we’ve gotten to the current model situation because women believe they can look like picture number two when they purchase the swimsuit, when in reality they’re setting themselves up for disappointment.
The reason we love our skinny models is the fantasy we play in our minds of what clothing can do for us, and that fantasy includes looking like the model in the dress that we just purchased. Does this modeling agency stand a chance to be successful touting realistic body images? My guess would be this trend might trickle in to lower-end markets and department store advertisements, but the high end fashion world will probably stay away for the moment. I will never spout “beauty comes in all shapes” mantra, but I will say that I wouldn’t mind seeing a fit and healthy model in a size 6/8.
-Kat Bremhorst
Article & Image Source: fashionista.com
