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Plus-size models buck thin trend in V magazine
‘Big’ news as avant-garde fashion publication releases February ‘Size’ issue
By Michael Inbar
TODAYshow.com contributor
updated 10:46 a.m. ET, Fri., Jan. 8, 2010

The stick-skinny, celery-and-cigarettes crowd of female models will likely never go out of fashion — but now their more substantial sisterhood is giving them a run for their money.
Glamour magazine fired the first shot last year when it featured a photo of plus-size model Lizzie Miller flashing a broad smile while letting her belly show. Now V magazine has upped the ante with the release of its “Size” issue this week — featuring models whose dress sizes hit double digits sporting skimpy bathing suits, hip-hugging jeans and, in some cases, nothing at all.
“I loved the opportunity to show that you can be beautiful and sexy outside the narrow interpretations that normally define us,” said photographer Solve Sundsbo, who snapped the models for V.
Big and small
V magazine is known for pushing the envelope on fashion journalism; it famously pictured pop star Lady Gaga topless in a photo spread last year. And now it has moved the debate of size-equals-beauty even more to the forefront with two competing covers of its new issue. One cover features 250-pound “Precious” film star Gabourey Sidibe, while the other cover features 100-pound, size-0 actress Dakota Fanning.
In addition, the current issue features a pictorial of traditionally svelte model Jacquelyn Jablonski posing in exactly the same fashions as plus-size model Crystal Renn.
Renn, of course, has become an icon to bigger women everywhere. The curvy size-12 model recounted her tale of trying to fit in with the size-0 modeling crowd in her memoir “Hungry,” released last year.
And while V seemingly sets up big-versus-small as some kind of competition, Renn has said she’s not out to topple the thin models from their traditional throne of dominance in the fashion industry.
“I’d like to see everyone take on the attitude that there are women of all different shapes and sizes as ‘the beauty ideal,’ and that it’s not one type or another,” Renn told The Associated Press.
“There are women who are naturally a size 2 — you can’t forget them, and that’s discrimination the other way,” Renn added. “All women bring something different to the table, and we have to appreciate them all.”
Eye of the beholder?
Still, V’s creative director Stephen Gan says he’s more in tune than ever to what bigger models can offer. He admits he was caught up in the smaller-is-better thinking until he met with Renn during New York City’s Fashion Week last fall.
“When someone as gorgeous as she is was talking about how her agent would keep telling her to lose weight … and she ended up nearly dying,” Gan was moved to re-examine his own mind-set, he told the New York Post.
But what sealed the deal for Ren was seeing the movie trailer for “Precious” last year and its zaftig star Sidibe. “I don’t want to sound like a fashion person … but for the last three months I have been obsessed with bigger girls!” he told the Post.
The average U.S. woman is considered to be a size 14, and some 41 percent of them are a larger size. While some critics have panned V’s plus-size model shoot, claiming it is in bad taste and promotes unhealthy living, Gan says he is of a mind to say, “Can’t we all just get along?”
“In this world, when a girl’s called ‘beautiful,’ sometimes my reaction to that is: In what terms? In fashion terms? Beauty pageant terms? Real people terms? I wish I could just say, ‘She’s beautiful,’ and leave it at that,” Gan told the Post.
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V magazine Size-0 actress Dakota Fanning is one of the two covers of avant-garde V magazine’s annual “Size Issue.”

The alternate cover of V features 250-pound “Precious” film star Gabourey Sidibe, who has made the magazine’s creative director, Stephen Gan, re-examine his ideas about beauty.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
Curves ahead

Who says thin dominates the fashion industry? The “Size Issue” of V magazine features stunning plus-size models — like Crystal Renn — in sexy boysuits and barely-there outfits.

Story


Plus-size models buck thin trend in V magazine
It's big news in the fashion world as avant-garde magazine V features a photo shoot with plus-size models for its February "Size" issue. Some insiders say this is just one example of fashion's movement away from spotlighting only stick-thin women.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
More to love

The "Size Issue" intends to showcase high-fashion outfits on voluptuous bodies — a combination rarely found in women's magazines.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine

Twice the fun

The models in V magazine appear in everything from bustiers and bodysuits to nothing but their own skin.

Story


A brand-new day dawns for full-size fashions
An estimated 41 percent of U.S. women are larger than a size 14, and only 10 percent of retailers cater to this category. With that in mind, TODAY's Bobbie Thomas examines what's available and affordable in plus-sizes.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
Thigh-high

After shooting the models for V, photographer Solve Sundsbo said, "I loved the opportunity to show that you can be beautiful and sexy outside the narrow interpretations that normally define us."

Video



Plus-size model bares it all
Aug. 24: TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to plus-size model Lizzi Miller about baring it all in a photo shoot for Glamour magazine.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
Bold moves

Model Tara Lynn wears a tight top by Armani Jeans.

Fellow plus-size model Crystal Renn, whose dimensions are 36-31-41, also participated in the spread. "I'd like to see everyone take on the attitude that there are women of all different shapes and sizes as 'the beauty ideal,' and that it's not one type or another," Renn said. "There are women who are naturally a size 2 — you can't forget them, and that's discrimination the other way."

Story


Plus-size model Crystal Renn fits in own skin
Crystal Renn was miserable as a super-thin model who had heart palpitations when she'd worry that there might be calories in Diet Coke. She knew she needed to live in the body she was supposed to have — specifically a curvy size 12.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
Good jeans

Models Tara Lynn, Candice Huffine, Michelle Olson and Marquita Pring strike poses in contemporary denim outfits.

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Solve Sundsbo / V magazine
Full fashion

Model Michelle Olson wears a corset and briefs by Dolce & Gabbana.

V magazine hopes their photo spread will prove big is bigger than ever: "These bombshells of plus-size are proving that there's plenty of room in the fashion world for women who look like ... women."

Story


German mag swaps thin models for real women
Germany's most popular women's magazine announced Monday that it is banning professional models from its pages in favor of "real women" in an attempt to combat an unhealthy standard of rail-thin beauty that it says has alienated its readers.

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