WHY SIZE 10?

This site features only models over a size 10.  That’s size 10 in whatever the country where the model is represented calls a size 10.  Now, I could have made it a size 8, but I know that many people would have a big problem with that because they just don’t believe that a size 8 model should be selling clothes to a size 18+ woman.  It’s not ‘representative’, which is a pretty good reason.  Well, neither are the size 0/2/4 models particularly representative of a size 14 woman, when you think about it.  It’s the way the clothing industry works, however.

Just like nurses, teachers and garbage collectors, the job models over a size 10 perform is the same as their peers regardless of size, ethnicity or gender. The only thing that sets larger models’ work apart is that they wear clothes specifically designed for larger women.  Realistically they should be called plus-size clothing models, but nobody throws that extra word in.  Given also that the models often look smaller-sized in photographs than their measurements would imply – even at a size 16/18 – to the general public they are not ‘big enough’ to be called plus-sized models.   Describing the model by the clothing they wear, rather than by their actual size is where the confusion and frustration begins for many people when they look at advertising for plus-size clothing.  It’s this burden of terminology that makes for some pretty divided feelings among consumers where none should ideally exist.  So that’s why you won’t see the phrase “plus-size model” too often on this website.

Internationally, the majority of agency-represented career models generally range between US size 8-16/Australia 10-18/UK & Europe 10-18 (there are always a few exceptions).  They are just like smaller models, but are made on a larger scale.  This is true now more than ever, because the trend in model agencies is to find girls who used to be a much smaller dress size (Crystal Renn, Kate Dillon, Amy Lemons, et al) and who have since put on weight but still retain their youthful skin and bone structure while being developed in the bust and hips.  Having a visible collarbone, thin arms or a firm stomach doesn’t mean that a model ‘isn’t big enough’ to be a plus-size model: everyone carries their weight differently to someone else of the same dress size, and the measurement range for the models is less restrictive on overall bust-waist-hip proportions than for high fashion models.  That’s the joy of this part of the modelling industry.  It is more accomodating of women’s bodies and their natural shifts in weight and shape.

Less confusing language should be developed to help us when we talk about the models, the clothing, and the consumers.  Personally, I think we should call the models ‘models’ and the clothes ‘extended sizes’.  At their essence, that’s what they are. What you call yourself is up to you.  There is no demand that you have to identify with ‘curvy’, ‘plus-size’ or any other euphemism for being a larger size, and you don’t need to identify with the models on this site.  What you see and like is entirely up to you.  If you see a model whose body looks like yours no matter her dress size, search for more of her work – or don’t.  The choice is yours.

So settle in, look around and decide for yourself whether dress size really matters when it comes to beauty.  After all, it doesn’t matter what you look at, it only matters what you see.