It can be done after all: editor Franca Sozzani has honoured plus-sized women with the cover story and photo of Vogue Italia, June 2011.
On the front of the magazine the three models — Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine and Robyn Lawley — are posed in lingerie around a restaurant table, in black and white, against a blurry white and silver backdrop of a waitress and other figures, walls and natural light.
It is a part of the editor's campaign against pro-anorexia websites and the fixation on slenderness which European and American society pursue.
***
"Plus-size" models are expected to be tall — according to the r.W.a. 175 cm (5 ft. 9 in.) or more — and the ideal circumferences of their waist, hips, and bust as well as their weight are subjective. Since the nominal sizes of clothing are inconsistent it is not a perfect gauge either. The pioneering model Crystal Renn is, according to her agency, a size 8 at present, while Ford's regular-sized models are 0 to 4.
The arguments for thin models* are that clothing fits best on forms that are not plump and incalculably bulgy; that some designers want a conformist model aesthetic and so it is simplest to choose an arbitrary height and size (and skin colour, etc.) and to send out only models who have them; and that fashion designers like Karl Lagerfeld appear to personally dislike fat though it is unclear whether it is due to current social attitudes or individual conviction. Besides fashion is aspirational; most of us may be plump in reality, and still most of us would like to have soaring height and slender waists.
*I don't have footnotes for this, though a tip of the hat to Jezebel is obligatory, since these theories are ones I have read and gathered from different sources over the years.
The most prestigious fashion designers never let plus-sized models walk on their runways, except notably for Jean Paul Gaultier when he showed his spring 2006 collection and sent out Crystal Renn in a flowery black gown, the same designer when he invited Beth Ditto and others (Marquite Pring and Renn) to participate in his show for Spring 2011 ready-to-wear, Zac Posen when he sent her out in a black dress in his Fall 2011 ready-to-wear runway and used her to model his Z Spoke collection, and Mark Fast when he devoted his showing to plus-size women for Spring 2010 ready-to-wear.
As for prestigious print modelling, voluptuary photos are also exceptions. In July 2008 Toccara Jones was photographed for the "black issue" of Vogue Italia, in a similarly bohemian manner, (pp. 116-129).
There are innumerable rationalizations for these attitudes. In fashion diets and thinness may be a kind of modern substitute for anchorite-like regimens. It is not only models but also for instance editors, stylists, actresses who wear fashion on red carpets, heiresses who traffic in couture, and designers themselves (as is underlined by, among other things, poignant sentences at the end of the New York Times's profile of Marc Jacobs) who are affected.
If curvy Italian Vogue has as much influence as black Italian Vogue does, fashion magazines and catwalks will not resemble a Rubens art collection in this century. Nevertheless it is nice to see the status quo in question.
But as long as there are people like Crystal Renn and American Vogue's Andre Leon Talley who are willing to brave expectations by being whatever size they like, the rule will be proven by hopeful exceptions.
"Plus-size model" [Wikipedia] Read June 3, 2011
"Vogue Italia stay ahead of the curve" [Daily Telegraph], by Belinda White (June 2, 2011)
"Fab Four: Edizione speciale di Iuglio 2008" [Vogue Italia]
"Belle Vere" [Vogue Italia]
"Crystal Renn Photos Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear Zac Posen" [Style.com] Accessed June 3, 2011
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