The More Plus Please campaign launched this morning with a website and video that point to the lack of size diversity, from the catwalk to the pages of the leading fashion press. It follows a New York Fashion Week that saw an absence of plus size models from the scheduled shows and a month in which the leading fashion monthlies carried 40 times more images of 'model' sized women than plus size women, despite the latter being the majority of the population.
The campaign was initiated by Navabi, the premium plus size retailer. navabi chief merchant Miriam Lahage commented "There is no one version of beauty and it's time the industry reflected this. And we're not talking just one model in a show or publishing a shoot just once a season in a magazine.There is a mindset among designers which results in media collateral that totally excludes plus size women - from catwalk imagery to samples.
For example, not one single model at the two leading specialist plus size model agencies has been booked for LFW. This needs to change. And we would also invite fashion writers and stylists to take the initiative and challenge the received wisdom. For example, with designers moving to a show and buy concept which will remove the sample tyranny there has never been a greater opportunity for stylists to embrace size diversity in their shoots."
Navabi surveyed 12 weekly and monthly fashion magazines and found that images of 'model' size women outnumbered plus size women by 23 to 1 (women falling in between the two were not counted). The weeklies fared better than the monthlies with a ratio of 12 'model' size images to one plus size, but that figure sees curvy celebrities like size 12 Holly Willoughby counted as plus which many would contest.
For the monthlies the figure was 40 to one and the plus size women featured were generally not in a fashion context. And only one designer brand advertising in the issues surveyed - Dolce & Gabbana - featured a plus size woman in its campaign. Navabi is committed to celebrating and supporting size diversity. At the end of last year it responded to a fat shaming incident on the London Underground by handing out unbranded cards to women stating 'You Look Great.'
To find out more visit www.moreplusplease.com
Women on social media call for bigger women to be represented in the media
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