It’s time to embrace middle-sized models
Anyone with half an eye on the fashion industry will know that there has been a long-running debate about size zero models. And oodles of attention on the plus-sized women who have broken the mould – Ashley Graham (a size 16-18) made the 2017 Forbes list of the world’s highest paid models and Tess Holliday (a size 26 who proudly coined the hashtag #effyourbeautystandards) appeared on the cover of Cosmopolitan recently. But what about the middle ground?
Middle, average, in-between … ugh, they’re such dull, nothing words but when it comes to how fashion is presented to us there are few ideas more exciting or wildly unusual than a “normal” sized woman being among the models on the catwalk or in a shoot. Approximately speaking, that’s anyone between a UK 10 and 16, which is probably the majority of us (16 is the national norm according to the ONS).
Maybe it’s because fashion doesn’t traditionally trade in normality, preferring provocation and extremes or, conversely, because once it has an idea of what looks good, it can take aeons to swerve away from that, but only now is the “middle model” starting to look like a concept the industry will get on board with.
At IMG, one of the world’s biggest model agencies, there is considerable enthusiasm to make this happen. “I’ve managed a lot of women throughout their careers and one thing you notice is that women and their bodies change. I’m passionate about fashion catching up with that,” Maja Chiesi, senior vice president tells me. As head of the women’s board, she’s responsible for strategising the careers of big names like Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss and Lily Aldridge. She’s become more aware of the debate since the agency began representing “curve” girls five years ago (historically, curve is the division assigned to anyone over an 8) and has been working to encourage designers to make their samples in a range of sizes beyond the usual 6-8.
It’s an issue that has been thrown into sharp focus for her recently, masterminding the next stage in the career of Australian model Gemma Ward. Now 31, Ward was hailed “the new Kate Moss” when she made her debut at a Prada show in 2003. “I was a pretty normal 15-year-old when I started modelling and I thought I looked great,” Ward says. “It was during one of my first shows in Perth that I was given my first taste of body shaming. The show was full of up-andcoming designers and models. Each designer was assigned a model. When I was placed with my “designer” she looked at me with disgust and said ‘Trust me to get the model with the biggest measurements’ and I was absolutely crushed. I returned two weeks later for the show an absolute skeleton. To this day it still hurts.”
Despite becoming one of the world’s most in-demand, era-defining faces, in 2009 Ward suffered the humiliation of the headline “Roll Model” being splashed across a paparazzi picture of her in a swimsuit months after the death of her boyfriend Heath Ledger. Looking at the grainy image now, she looks like any other woman you might come across at the beach, albeit a beguilingly beautiful one. Two children and a career break later, Ward, who is slim but not sample size, is making a comeback on her own terms. She’s recently walked in Proenza Schouler and Alexander Mcqueen shows. Chiesi cites these brands as being some of the most receptive to working with her on her mission to bridge the sample/ plus-sized gap. Indeed, Mcqueen is a rare gem amongst the big names for its embrace of a variety of body shapes; non-sample size Lara Stone and Jill Kortleve walked alongside Ward in the spring/summer 2019 show. “I think there is less stigma on being a range of sizes now, which is so important,” says Ward. “I don’t want to see girls or boys feeling scared to be anything other than rail thin and developing extreme measures to get there. I think important work is being done to show that if you are a bigger size, it doesn’t mean you are not healthy, beautiful or sexy.” While Ward has the kudos of her wellestablished name and reputation, 19-year-old size 12 Effy Kaethner is just starting out. She signed to IMG earlier this summer after being scouted two years ago, “but I was a bit too small to be plus-size and a bit too big to be “straight size” so it was a bit difficult to know where I stood,” she says, encapsulating the crux of the middle model issue. Kaethner has always been sporty – she does everything from rowing to ballet – and was never prepared to sacrifice eating to fuel her activities for being a size six.
The University of Manchester student did her first season of castings at this September’s London Fashion Week. It was an experience which required a strong head. “I got callbacks from a few incredible clients which gave me confidence that things are changing but otherwise it was quite strange,” she confides. “I was one of only three girls larger than a size 10 that I saw the whole week. I got some weird stares.
“To be on the street amongst women of all sizes and then go into a building where you are the only person who’s your size, it’s only natural to think ‘oh maybe I need to be more similar to those girls if I’m going to get jobs’ but then you go home and get some perspective.”
It’s not just in the modelling industry that the middle ground is having a moment. This week, Marks & Spencer announced that it is introducing more stock in sizes 8 to 14 to avoid disappointing customers in this segment. And on Instagram, an account dedicated to #midsizestyle has already gathered nearly 17,000 followers since its launch in July.
“Seventy per cent of the population would be considered mid-size so it seems crazy that it doesn’t get more attention,” says Anushka Moore, a fashion blogger and founder of @ midsizecollective.
Everyone agrees that naming this movement is tricky. “I think ‘curve’ is quite complementary and makes me feel proud. But I hate ‘in-between’ girl,” offers Kaethner. Moore is happy with her mid-size labelling – it’s straightforward and doesn’t come with the niggling wrongness of a term like ‘normal’. Chiesi is setting the bar high though, striving for a label-free approach. “Aspiration is subjective so we need to have all different sizes and shapes,” she says. “You want to be able to look at a runway or the pages of a magazine and see someone who looks like you, who makes you think ‘Wow, I could wear that’.”