‘YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOOK LIKE EVERYONE ELSE’

Tia Duffy was told she didn’t have a future in modelling because she was ‘too big’ but the Dubliner is now the face of a global campaign that aims to bring diversity to the entire fashion industry

TIA DUFFY has graced the pages of Vogue, staged her own fashion show that hit headlines all over the globe and started a model movement – and that’s only in the past 12 months. But for the Dublin-born model, the catwalk was a career she almost turned her back on after she was turned away from an Irish agency for being ‘too big’.

Tia, however, is a girl who has grit and determination in spades and a resilience that saw her conquer the modelling world on two continents in spite of – or perhaps because of – those awful comments.

Finglas native Tia has now relocated to Canada, where she last year launched her Be Body Aware Campaign, which caught the eye and imagination of the fashion world and style bible Vogue.

Now as You magazine catches up with Tia from her Toronto base, we can reveal that she is indeed big – a great big success.

‘I was about 17 when I was turned away from an agency,’ she recalls. ‘It had a really big effect on me. I was always really tall and people would say, oh, you should be a model. But when I went into it, it was a totally different ball game. I entered Miss Ireland as Miss DCU – I was representing my college so I thought it would be a positive experience. But when I turned up, the dresses didn’t fit me. There was myself and another model who were a size 12, which was a stone lighter than I am now, I’m a 14 now. But I never considered myself to be fat, I considered myself to be an average woman.

‘I didn’t consider myself overweight – I’m 6ft tall. So we went in and the dresses were there and when I went to get into it, I had to literally squeeze myself in.

‘When it came to the swimwear, it was very evident that the other models were starving themselves – the whole swimwear [part] I have never agreed with.

‘I was backstage and I just didn’t fit in, it was just a horrendous experience. I thought it was my way into an agency – a lot of girls here do, as

they look at the Irish models and a lot of them have come through the Miss Ireland process.’

While Tia encourages anyone who wants a career in modelling to follow their dream, she says it must be approached in a professional manner.

‘If you want to model, take a plain picture, no make-up, and go to an agency. It’s about stripping it down and being natural, the agencies just want to see natural. My advice for any teenager is keep their look clear and pare it back.

‘I would also say to avoid pageants – some people have had positive experiences with them, but looking back at it now as an adult there was so much going on that was just not right. Why do girls compete in a bikini? I just don’t see any positive in that. It really did affect me.’

It may have affected her but it didn’t deter the beauty. ‘I thought screw this,’ she says of her decision to stop trying to find work in the industry. ‘Then something came up on Xposé, there was a competition and they were looking for a curvy model. So my mam said, “why don’t you enter that?” I was like, “no way, I’m done with that industry” but something inside me convinced me to enter as we don’t have that many curvy models in Ireland.

‘So I went for it. I was about 22 at the time. I didn’t win but things blew up from there for me. I got signed in New York, signed in Cape Town and I was the face of the website for Simply Be, so it took off from there. That’s when I realised I could be a plus-sized model. I didn’t have to lose weight or change my body, that was my niche. Everyone reached out to me and ever since I realised that you don’t have to lose weight, you don’t have to look like everyone else.

‘I remember I was working in a shop and I used to cut out pictures of models and think I had to look like that because that was the only body type represented in the media. It was the only type of women that I saw every day in the media. There was nobody out there saying, love your body.’

After a successful stint working in Ireland and the US as a plus-sized model, a chance encounter with a ‘boy from around the corner’ led to her soulmate, Canada and a new career.

‘I lived in New York for a while then I came back to Ireland for a little while and I met my fiancé,’ she reveals. ‘It was a total fluke, I was supposed to go back to New York and then I got used to the food and being back with my mam and then I met Dermot. He’s from Finglas as well, we actually lived around the corner from each other our whole lives. We kind of knew each other to see then we went on a date and we have been inseparable ever since. That was three-and-a-half years ago and we’re getting married in June next year.

‘We’re getting married in Cork. It’s really hard planning a wedding from abroad. We have to organise everything on our trips back home if we want to see anything. We have to squash it all into one visit. I really wanted a country wedding though. I’ve lived in big cities like New York and Toronto so when you live away I think you really appreciate the Irish countryside.’

After deciding to relocate to Canada, Tia was focused on finding her feet as a model. But as she found, even with a stellar CV, it was hard to find an agency. Again, her ingrained grit kicked in and she knocked on every door until she finally landed one.

‘I went to agencies by foot when I arrived here but I didn’t fit in any category. To look at me you wouldn’t always think I was plus-size and that’s the problem. I’m campaigning for all bodies.

‘So I went to this agency, it was my last agency in Canada and was actually one of the biggest, it used to be Ford Models, its now Centrino. I was like, I’ll just give them a go.

‘I had to go into their big fancy boardroom and sit down with the team and tell them about me and coming from Ireland and everything that I’d done and they just said, “you’re signed”. My agents are fantastic, they reached out to everyone and introduced me to everyone and said, “this is who Tia is and this is her work”. I think because I had big Irish portfolio, that it stood to me.’

While she has, admittedly, a great life in Canada, her heart belongs at home and she really misses

“I FELT BRANDS WERE USING PLUS SIZE MODELS AS A PUBLICITY STUNT. THEY WOULD USE THEM ONCE THEN NEVER AGAIN”

her family, including her biggest fans, her dad Maurice and her mum Eileen.

‘I’m really homesick all the time,’ she admits. ‘I try to get home twice a year, but I really miss Ireland. I even get overwhelmed talking about it. Things are really taking off for me so well over here, but it’s so bittersweet because I just miss home so much. So what we do is we just work really hard and then plan for our trips home. We don’t go on vacation anywhere else, we just spend all of our time going home to Ireland.’

A huge part of Tia’s career has been the building of the global movement Be Body Aware, which she was prompted to start after noticing a severe lack of diversity in the model industry. It was this that saw her land the pages of Vogue – along with her catwalk collaboration with Canadian designer Lesley Hampton, which garnered global acclaim.

‘I started Be Body Aware in January 2016,’ she says. ‘I had worked ten years and I thought that nothing had changed. I felt that brands were using plus-size models as a publicity stunt. They would use them once and then never again. You have brands that do that all the time. So I thought, how can I help change this so it’s consistent?

‘I got his idea in my head to reach out to brands and designers and see how can we do this. Obviously it opens up their audience but they need a good reason to do it. So I said ok, let’s work together.

‘Then Be Body Aware just really grew and gained traction. Being in Vogue really helped it grow and people looked at it as an official brand but it was just an idea that grew in my head. Even the words Be Body Aware really took time. I needed words that were universal and encompassed all body types.

‘I met Lesley two years ago and I told her all about my work and the Be Body Aware campaign. She wanted to help promote curvier girls and all different types of models on the runway so we just kept in touch and I started doing some modelling for her.’

Together they cast a diverse range of models for their recent show during Toronto Fashion Week – most notable was Adrienne Haslet, an amputee from the Boston Marathon bombing.

‘We were just looking for all different types of women, women who didn’t feel represented in the media, and women who can help send out a message to all other women and men.

‘Adrienne’s amazing – she has a massive connection to Ireland because she runs races here. She’s from Boston and is just amazing, such a strong person. There’s something so special about her. I watched her Ted Talk online and she tells the story about what happened to her. She is out there trying to fight for amputee rights and she’s actually a fitness model now – that tenacity, she won’t let anything bring her down.

‘She wasn’t a runner when she was in the Boston bombing, she was there supporting her fiancé then she became a runner afterwards. She is just spine-chilling – she’s a ballroom dancer, a model... It’s one of those things that you think would hold a person back but she just didn’t let it. She’s campaigning for the rights of amputees and she’s raising funds. People talk about inspirational, this girl is truly inspiring.

‘She has the most amazing walk I have ever seen, she can really walk that runway. She just turned up, put her leg on and walked that runway! People were crying, she got a standing ovation, it was incredible.’

Though she misses home, Tia believes she had to move away in order to get the Be Body Aware campaign up and running. ‘In the modelling industry, I don’t know if I had done Be Body Aware in Ireland would it have had the same impact? I’d like to think it would, but I’m just not sure.’

Now she’s focused on building on the strong foundations the campaign has already been given – and she believes she has only taken the first tentative steps towards what it can be.

‘Be Body Aware is trying to bring diversity to the catwalk as well as to the media – to bring it to the runway is just amazing because that’s where it starts, that’s fashion’.

“BE BODY AWARE IS TRYING TO BRING DIVERSITY TO THE CATWALK AS WELL AS TO THE MEDIA”