BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS
As the weather gets a little colder, shop windows get a little nicer and big, shiny red signs begin to pop-up in stores and online, marking 50 per cent off that sweater you’ve been eyeing. I was recently enticed by one of these signs and guiltily lured onto the website of one of my favourite clothing stores, American Apparel. Scrolling and scrolling I found several items I was interested in, but none of the models on the site were wearing the size I wanted to buy. All of the display models were wearing either a small or an extra small. I had no idea what these clothes would look like on my body and I was turned off by the lack of variety in size amongst the models.
There is an unnecessary divide in the modelling industry that labels models of any size larger than small as “plus size” models. It’s a term that subjectively categorizes women with a negative connotation, when numbers alone can identify a person’s size.
There is an unnecessary divide in the modelling industry that labels models of any size larger than small as “plus size” models.
The famous model, Iskra Lawrence has been taking the industry by storm with her site Runway Riot, a style hub for curvy women that hand picks looks for curvy women. Before being signed to the prominent modelling agency JAG, Lawrence endured rejection after rejection from agencies telling her she was “too big” for the runway but “not big enough” for plus size modelling. She recently took to the streets of New York City to ask people what they thought of the industry labelling her as a ‘plus size’ model. None of the people interviewed thought she should be called ‘plus size’ and neither does she. “I’m a model equal to any other model in the industry, why should it matter that I have 44 inch hips? By labelling me, you have automatically labelled 67 per cent of America who wear a size 14 or above,” she wrote on the site.
The famous model, Iskra Lawrence has been taking the industry by storm with her site Runway Riot, a style hub for curvy women. She recently took to the streets of New York City to ask people what they thought of the industry labelling her as a ‘plus size’ model.
The term hasn’t always been so controversial. It originated in the early 1960s — a time when catalogue shopping dominated the fashion industry — because The Mail Order Association of America demanded the government to set standards for sizes. Using height, bust and hip girth the industry adopted a regulatory sizing system. Height was distinguished using T for tall, R for regular and S for short. Bust was assigned even numbers on a scale of 8 to 38. Hip girth also had three categories — slender, average and wide — slender was assigned a minus sign, average had no sign and wide a plus sign.
The term originated in the early 1960s and hasn’t always been controversial.
Earlier this year #DropThePlus was trending on Twitter and the popular online store, ModCloth dropped its plus size category from their site, starting a debate over the widely used term. Forever 21 and ASOS are among the stores who have decided to keep their plus size sections, ASOS changing theirs to “ASOS Curve.”
Earlier this year #DropThePlus took over Social Media to end the use of the term “plus size.”
Marie Claire writer, Nicole Mason told ABC News that when it comes to clothes, plus size is still an important distinction. “Until plus sizes are more readily available to satisfy the two thirds of American women who wear a size 14 or higher, there does need to be some terminology.”
Regardless of a need for distinction, I’m sure we can foster a more positive spin on the tired term. If guys get ‘Big and Tall’ why can’t ladies get ‘Goddess?’ Let us know what you want to replace the term “plus size” by tweeting @theplaidzebra or commenting below.
Image sourcing: netdna-ssl.com, ibtimes.com, runwayriot.com, jezebel.com
