The Rise of The Fat Supermodel: Is The Fashion Industry Embracing Plus Size Models?

When it comes to the fashion industries obsession with waif like models, times they are a changing…well maybe just a dress size or two.  In recent months the industry has seen a sidestep in to the usually unmentionable world of FAT!  Several leading modelling agencies now have dedicated plus size divisions, recognising the huge surge in popularity of plus-sized fashion bloggers and Instagrammers.  According to Public Health England, two thirds of people in the UK are overweight and are in need of taking better care of their health.

The rise of the fat supermodel-  Is the fashion industry embracing plus size models?

Candice Huffine became the first plus size model to feature in this years’ Pirelli calendar, has graced the front page of Italian Vogue, and has appeared in i-D and Harper’s Bazaar

Tess Holliday’s huge social media following, helped get her signed to modelling agency MILK Model Management who now have a separate division, Curve, which is dedicated to plus size models.

Advertisers using slim models for their ‘health’ campaigns have been heavily criticised by the public and media alike. Protein World’s infamous Are You Beach Body Ready? poster campaign backlash is a prime example of this shift in attitudes towards the ideal female body.

We asked Dr Marilyn Glenville, Nutritionist, women’s health expert and author of Fat Around the Middle: How to Lose That Bulge – For Good  for her thoughts…

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How difficult is it to maintain a super skinny body shape and still be healthy?

It is very difficult if not impossible to maintain a super skinny body shape and still be healthy.  And for women it is important not to lose too much fat, because then periods will stop and it can affect not only fertility but also increase the risk of problems like osteoporosis because the woman has lost the protection of the female hormones.

 

Do you see women who struggle to lose weight more regularly now?

Yes.  In my clinics in Harley Street and Tunbridge Wells, I frequently see women who struggle to lose weight.  Most of them just want to be a healthy weight and to have a way of eating that becomes a way of life rather than being on a constant diet or having to do fad diets.

 

Many women I see also want to change their body shape as well as lose weight as they know they are carrying too much fat around their middles which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, cancer (especially breast cancer), heart disease, Alzheimer’s and high blood pressure.

 

Do you think the fashion industry should embrace models who better represent today’s average British woman?  

I definitely think the fashion industry should embrace models who look like the average British woman.  It makes it easier for the average woman to relate to the clothes that the model is wearing and more likely to want to purchase them.  If the model is super thin, then the average woman will think they can’t possibly attain that without starving themselves and knows that it is just not realistic for them.

 

Can you be healthy and bigger?

This is really dependent on body fat percentage rather than weight.  A person’s weight cannot differentiate between fat and muscle and an athlete and a couch potato can have the same Body Mass Index (BMI – a ratio of height to weight) and yet have a completely different percentage of fat and muscle.

 

A woman can be bigger and healthy if she has the correct percentage of body fat (25-31%). Too low, it risks her periods stopping, infertility and osteoporosis, too high then it risks heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

 

Want to shift some pounds naturally?

 

Dr Marilyn Glenville (www.marilynglenville.com) has joined forces with luxury health spa Champneys.com, to deliver a series of very special women’s wellbeing weekends this year.  These very special one and two day retreats are led by Dr Glenville herself and offer natural solutions and insight into four significant female health issues; Fat Around The Middle, Digestion & IBS, Menopause & Osteoporosis and Fertility.

 

 

Slim With Big Breasts? Frost Has The Answer To Your Fashion Dilemma

I have a fashion dilemma: I can either buy dresses in my size which squash my breasts, or buy a larger dress that makes me look like I am pregnant. I have always found it really annoying that a lot of women’s clothes are not designed for breasts. I mean, if they do not design them with our bodies in mind then why should we buy them? The clothes should be made to fit the body, not the body to fit the dress.

Made in Preston is the brand that specialises in fashion forward styles for women with slim waists and bigger boobs. Based in the industrial docklands of Preston, it is set to become the hottest new brand on the block.

big boobs, big breasts, fashion , clothes, dress

Made in Preston is bursting with attitude. Gone are the frumpy A-line dresses, stretchy wrap-around styles and chintzy smocks that have filled the wardrobes of those blessed with ‘bustiness’! Made in Preston do not want you to wear uninspiring styles anymore! Women want sexy dresses, bold colours and fashionable fabrics, and it is essential that they fit to perfection. So girls, this is what Made in Preston is giving you. If you are a size 8 with a G cup bust then look no further, Made in Preston have a fashionable range of dresses from sizes 6-16 that accommodate cup sizes ranging from a 26DD-38J, meaning that tiny waists and big busts are no longer a shopper’s nightmare!

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As the name suggests, everything is designed, sampled, graded, produced, and packaged in the brand’s factory in Preston. By shopping at Made in Preston, you are helping to resurrect a by-gone industry in the North West of England. Once thriving, it has dwindled to virtually nothing during the last few decades, but the brand are determined to bring British manufacturing back. Made in Preston aims to bring back skills, pride in local heritage and most importantly local jobs.

Check them out here: www.madeinpreston.com

This Month’s Magazines, September Part 2: Sarah Jessica Parker Takes Red, Instyle Turns 10.

This Month’s Magazines, September Part 2: Sarah Jessica Parker Takes Red, Instyle Turns 10.

Keira Knightley is on the cover of Marie Claire looking gorgeous. She tells Marie Claire that ‘Jealousy is the only emotion that has no positive side to it’ and tells of her tomboy ways by saying; ‘I didn’t wear skirts until I was 14. I hated them’.

There is a lot of Autumn clothing and shoes, a fashionista dream. Natalia Vodianova gives her style list, Robert Cavalli tells the secrets of relaunching his fashion label, 18 beauty secrets supermodels swear by, Catwalk beauty section, Is your body better than you think? A good article that shows women are usually in better shape than they think they are, The history of the vibrator, Faces of addicted women, how drugs destroys looks.

Love at first site or slow burn?, Amy Winehouse remembered, How a good ‘To Do’ list can change your life, Article on teaching women how to be good mothers, Tom Hardy interview, Mentors, Jordan AKA Katie Price interview, little white lies; are they okay?, Surviving domestic abuse, Annie Lennox, Hollywood stylists, Jessica Chastain, Anna Faris, Eva Green, Adele Parks, Scarlett Johanson tells her beauty rules, 24 hours to better skin, Staying in with Alex James, Diary of an emotional eater, Breast cancer awareness month.

It is Instyle’s 10th Anniversary and Diane Kruger is on the cover. It is a beautiful cover, with Diane in gold. Diane is interviewed inside. Diane on her style: “I don’t have my own stylist. And I like to be a little different – in LA, everyone wears the same dresses. I think my background as a model helps, because I like experimenting and I’m not afraid of fashion or what other people think of me. What you wear is one of the only things about yourself you can manipulate.”

There are a lot of wonderful articles about the history of Instyle, comments from Instyle cover girls, 10 years of style crushes, when we were 10, What I have learnt about style, party people, are you too old for your moisturiser, The easy way to perfect skin, Emma Watson on beauty, top ten celebrity homes, Eliza Doolittle.

The New Power List, 100 people to watch and all under 25. Diana Vickers talks style, 15 minutes Viktor & Rolf, Georgina Chapman’s Top 10 party list, Blake Lively is Instyle’s beauty crush,

There is a High Street Style special; guest edited by Daisy Lowe, Gemma Atterton is interviewed and talks about being okay with being a size 10, she says: “I don’t have to be skinny”, Jessica Szohr interview.

Sarah Jessica Parker takes the cover of Red. She is interviewed inside and tells Red that ‘I don’t read anything about me. I’ve never googled myself. I don’t have the constitution for it”.

There is a very good article on Tamara Mellon, and she shows her wardrobe, prepare for wardrobe envy. She is on the Red fashion power list alongside Natalie Massenet amongst others.

Two writers debate whether or not it’s good to settle, Isabel Ashdown talks about her fathers alcoholism, The women behind the Outnet talks to Red, the rise of the middle class drug addictions, What I’D save in a fire, Does career plus kids mean compromise?, The denim detox, How making little differences can change your life, What I see when I look in the mirror (Includes Jane Fallon, a brilliant author), KT Tunstall tells of the soundtrack to her life, Joan Collins interview; she announces she has never had plastic surgery, How to make peace with your hair, Pie recipes, The baby recession: Red’s annual fertility survey, cooking with apples. What is your fertility sell-by date?, An end to eye bags, Boot camp for the soul, Eva Green’s best things in life.

PART ONE IS HERE