THE ARCHIVIST

Maggie T, Winter 2009

THE PERSON CREATING THE RUNWAYREVOLUTION ARCHIVES:

PIPPA J. is an Australian model who has worked for over 16 years in the plus size industry.  She was the first Australian to be represented by Ford Models 12+ in North America, and her career sent her to locations in Africa, Europe, Scandinavia, Asia and North America.  She worked for many of the major names in Australian retailing, including Maggie T (six consecutive campaigns), Playtex, Autograph, My Size, Table 8, Avon,  Dolina, Grace Bros/Myer, and David Jones. She appeared on the pages of Australian Women’s Weekly, Madison, Woman’s Day, Family Circle, Take 5, That’s Life and New Idea; within Australia editions of Vogue and Marie Claire, and in overseas publications as diverse as Home Essentials (UK), Damernas Väld (Sweden), and Lifetime and Figure magazines (US), as well as The New York Times and Vancouver Sun (Canada) newspapers.  Her international clients include Quelle, Moda Vita, KappAhl, Avon, Nordstrom, SAKS 5th Avenue, Hanes/Just My Size, Modern Woman, Mr Jax, The Hudson Bay Company, Eaton’s, The Bon Marché, Profitts and Kohls.

As a staunch advocate for size diversity in fashion and a keen longtime observer of the industry, she created an online archive of published images of models over a size 10 called Every Body Is Beautiful in January 2009 to provide creative resources and a form of respite from the narrow media definitions of beauty.  In November 2009 the website moved to the new domain name of RunwayRevolution.com and by year’s end had received over 75,000 hits.   Supported materially by industry stakeholders such as Miroglio Group (Elena Miro), and tapping the assistance of a long-established network of model friends and agents, RunwayRevolution.com is able to present a truly international perspective of the plus-model industry from a well informed and substantially experienced source.  Every Body is Beautiful continues to exist online as a companion site to RR, providing commentary on the treatment of model size and related issues by the media and fashion industry.

In addition, she provides active mentorship of new and established models via the community forums of Plusmodels.com (a member since 2001) and through her photography work for modelling portfolios.

Ben Barry, CEO, Ben Barry Agency (regarding both Runway Revolution and Every Body is Beautiful)

What you are doing is amazing. Your site is so comprehensive and professional, and your sourcing impeccable. I think it is a ”role blog” for everyone who writes one. …Your current post really broke through the critique to point out a brilliant — and so important — point. It certainly caused me to take a step back and reflect on my own posts. Thank you for writing it…You have my total support.

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