Before I get to the topic of this post, I wanted to mention some awesome news from the world of fashion. The world’s top modelling agency, ING, has announced that they will now be casting all types of talent “regardless of size, race, and age.” This is excellent progress and a grand move towards acceptance of all body types and races in fashion magazines and on the catwalk. Hurrah!
Perhaps model Robyn Lawley will move over to ING at some point. She’s currently with Wilhelmina New York and New Madison (in Paris). This is her new ad campaign for Chantell Paris, which has created a new La Lingerie Noire bra line to from from 32A to 44H. Robyn is not technically plus-sized, but that’s how she rolls in the fashion industry. The 24-year-old Aussie is 6’2″ and a size 12, and she’s been on a wicked good crusade for acceptance of all body types. Robyn has spoken out against the real women have curves brigade and defended herself against thigh gap criticism from pro-ana groups. She recently stopped by the Ellen Show to talk more about the thigh gap problem:
Robyn’s ultimate message: “We need to accept our natural size. Women’s weight is really tarnished. When any celebrity woman gains weight we ridicule them, and we don’t think about the consequences to young girls. We should focus on what we say to each other. I’m all about finding your set natural weight and being happy at that weight. Don’t try and force yourself down — I can’t be skinny, that’s just my bone structure.”
Her early career: “Even at my absolute skinniest, I wasn’t skinny enough to model. IT was a really traumatic experience, I was 16 … to hate your body so much, to hold it responsible for not working and for holding your life back. It was a huge turnaround when I started plus-size modeling. I gave up and stopped caring. I fell in love with food again, I started a food blog and dedicated my life to just loving food.”
[From The Ellen Show]
Robyn is doing good work here as always. I appreciate how she’s still hammering away at this very important issue because — without people like her — the status quo of the runway will never change. As Robyn mentions, she is a “self-confessed foodie” and keeps a blog filled with photos of delicious looking food. I’d love to have lunch with her.
Here’s a video clip of the Ellen appearance and more of the Chantell ads as well. Robyn is so freaking gorgeous and very clever too.
Photos courtesy of Chantelle Paris
She’s gorgeous.
she should have been cast as the “Wonder woman”.Just chkd out her blog too ,its delish
I’ll buy TWO of whatever this young lady is selling! She is beautiful and glowing
YASSSS, so gorgeous! And sorry if I sound so dumb but being Malaysian, there are very few 6’2″ women in my country and I really can’t imagine myself meeting her in person. I’m so short compared to her ( I’m only 5’1, btw ).
I love that she’s so tall. I’m 6’4″ myself, so it makes me feel better to see women like her.
BNS
I envy you, wish I was taller. I’m 5’7
?
Omgosh i’m Malaysian too! Hehe. I am also only 5’1, but the men in my family run super tall. My dad is over 6 feet tall, not sure of the exact measurement. I also have friends who are pushing 6 feet, but none over it!
She is beautiful, love the photos.
The weight-shaming needs to stop. People are beautiful – “skinny” or “fat”.
Thank you.. but it seems to be the trend to call any woman skinny anorexic or that she is on drugs.. Women are all shapes. What is natural for one is not the same for all. And the sad part is it comes from WOMEN.. Women doing this to other women and in turn themselves.
Shame we never learn.
No, the trend is to demand that women who clearly starve are still beautiful because “women are all shapes”.
We need to differentiate between women who are naturally skinny and women who starve themselves. I have friends who are naturally skinny and have a flat chest and no hips, but they are very beautiful. What I don’t find beautiful are women who just drink water for weeks to look like a certain body type.
@Liv I agree it’s your natural body type that is beautiful. But your starving yourself to be thin comments could easily be reversed onto fat and especially obese people. Why should we be forced to find beautiful people who stuff their faces with anything in sight? That’s not their normal body weight/shape.
Thank you Gossy. Point well made.
I get your point and agree, that being overweight is not healthy either. But since it’s the norm in society to be as thin as possible and many women, especially young women, are forced to live up to the expectations of being very skinny, I just focused on women (or men) who starve to look thin.
I mean I basically support what Lisa2 said, all shapes are beautiful. But I think we should also call out Hollywood/the media/society for forcing women into a certain body type.
Whenever I stumble across these kinds of discussions, I am super greatful to have been raised in a culture that likes its women curvy. It may suck for naturally thin girls (my sympathies ladies) but I am just so glad to not have to deal with the Pro-Ana bs. I remember bringing an American gf home for a couple of weeks and that poor girl spent her vacation counting calories. We had a barbeque on her final day and this guy she was crushing on just asked her straight out if she was refusing to eat because she was on a diet………and then told her to her face that was really unsexy. Yes, the dude had no filter and what he did was unPC, it did get her thinking though. Now she works out to keep healthy but she doesnt diet anymore. Girl looks hot and isnt always so GD hungry and cranky anymore.
Women seem accepted as a bigger size if the have a perfect hour glass figure and our proportioned. I find it ironic. They don’t look like the too top heavy or pear shaped person I see at the supermarket. There is some obvious bias to what we find acceptable at all weights.
Good point, Barrett.
Women of ‘all sizes’ have to have these perfect ratios and still adhere to an imposed rigid body standard unattainable for the vast majority of women. Too many of us have bought into the patriarchal message that women are never good enough as is, and the only acceptable definition of attractive is when we fit their mold. This form of control is absurd and, thank God, women are now seeing through this shell game and loving themselves as the perfect Goddesses they are!
I’m glad that at least people are starting to realise that we come in different sizes, and that girls like Robyn Lawley keep bringing up these issues, but sometimes it makes me kinda bitter.
Every time I see positive messages about ‘larger’ women, or people congratulating clothing shops like H&M for introducing larger size mannequins, the pictures that accompany them ALWAYS show bodies with great ‘women-like’ proportions. Curvy hips and butts, smaller waists, and boobs that are in proportion to the rest. NEVER do they celebrate people with big butts and no boobs, or with big boobs and a belly but a flat butt, like I have. It’s always the hour glass shape.
The reason why is obvious, people don’t want to see flat chests and flat asses. Whether you’re skinny or fat or in between, a lot of body shapes are still not considered beautiful, and maybe never will be.
I think what she has been able to achieve in terms of getting this conversation taken further, getting the issue past lip service is remarkable. Long may she continue.
She is gorgeous and she looks so healthy and radiant. Plus she has something inteligent to say..always refreshing. I really like her!
Major girl crush!! She is GORGEOUS!! And plus-sized my ass, jeez if she’s plus-sized then I’m the siz of Jupiter….hang on, I do have my own gravitation pull đŸ˜›
God I love this woman. She’s beautiful and smart.
I am glad to see an agency hiring models with some variety. Hopefully good companies will use them!
She’s gorgeous and seems like a smart, thoughtful woman.
she is a knock out. I honestly think some women are supposed to be at the top part of the healthy scale. She looks amazing and strong. I remember seeing a pic of Beyonce once where they had a thick vs thin comparison for her, she looked so much better with the extra 20lb on her.
Well that was refreshing! I’m a 6′ tall woman who wears a size 12 and seeing her is really encouraging. I guess when you finally see “yourself” represented, you really relate to it. I’m sure every size and shape feels this way. I would think that this would REALLY help sell clothes. And there’s a place for bony models out there – they represent the ultra thin body-type, but honestly, they’re a much smaller part of the population than plus size. Now, if they could just make clothes to fit a variety of body types………
I can’t believe anyone thinks she is overweight. Gorgeous.
I’m never going to be a NASA scientist, I wish they would start hiring people of all intellectual fitness.
Just because you don’t fit somewhere doesnt mean you dont fit anywhere. Why cater to the infantile attitude when we should be teaching girls how to accept something for what it is.
The problem with people like Robyn (who I love and agree with her comments) speaking about this, and someone like Jennifer Lawrence too, is that they have killer bodies and look amazing and are super healthy and fit.
There’s a difference between an overweight woman with “curves” because she’s so overweight being called beautiful and Robyn who is naturally curvy and refuses to diet/starve herself being beautiful/looked up to.
It kills me that she is even seen as overweight just because she’s not super skinny like many models. I think our society is just warped. I went into a store the other day, and I tried on a medium blouse. I’m normal weight, but I’m busty, so it gapped a little in the chest. I asked for a large, and the saleswoman took great pride in telling me that they didn’t carry large. At all. Because they consider themselves a “contemporary” store, so they just don’t carry large. I guess Robyn couldn’t shop there, either. Craziness.
I agree. And, in fact, when celebrities who actually ARE bigger talk about how they like their bodies or refuse to starve themselves (Mindy Kaling comes to mind), people aren’t so kind. In truth, Robyn and Jennifer Lawrence do exercise and probably even diet to a certain extent – they have to maintain a certain size.
She’s stunning. I’m 6’1 and a size 4. I wish I had her curvy, fuller figure, but I starved myself down so I could model for the past 7 years. I miss my hourglass size 10 figure and I hope to have it back one day.
Yeah size 12 ,she is a very sexy woman.
The body type she has is so rarely represented in fashion. It’s either stick thing or (pretend) plus size. Where are the Mediums!
Good for her for continuing to talk about this issue. She is beautiful inside and out.
I hate to burst this love bubble but when you are 6′-2″ tall, being a size 12 is NOT the same as being size 12 if you are one foot shorter, say 5′-2″. Scale does matter. Given her height she is more like a size 6 or 8 for an average height woman ( I think that would be 5’6 or 5′-7)
For her height, she isn’t overweight, not even close.
I don’t think any of the commenters HERE were calling her fat. I think that her message still is important because I’m sure she is called fat by a lot of people in her business, but, for the average woman in America, she’s thin. Just like JLaw.
I am really happy that there are celebrities speaking out so loudly for the acceptance of women’s natural weight and sizes because people tend to listen to celebrities more than regular laypersons. This model may not be the “average” American woman (because of her measurements) but she is person with a voice and an opinion and she is entitled to speak so who is to say that she cannot do so because she is not the “average” woman. I am probably not the average woman but I don’t think there are averages anymore in this melting pot that is the world. And she is not saying only accept naturally large women or only accept naturally thin women…she is saying accept every woman as she is so that no one feels she has to starve herself or lavage herself to achieve an idealized standard of beauty. Her message is really important. I think it’s a message that we need to teach our mothers, daughters, sisters, nieces, aunts and cousins. I really hate the fact that we women are so defined by how much or how little we weigh. It is really horrible. I say this and honestly I am an offender myself. I pick my body apart harsher probably than anyone else ever could and I am guilty of weight commentary but it really does need to stop. It sucks to hear someone say that you have gained weight or even to hear someone say that you have lost weight in accusatory or judging tones…because let’s face it if you’ve either gained weight or lost weight you know it. I do not understand why a woman’s weight encourages such a free for all.
She is utterly gorgeous.
And I really wish all of the body size shaming and judgement would stop as well. People come in all shapes and sizes and should be accepted as is.
Robyn is gorgeous, but I really wanted to comment and say Chantelle bras are amazing. Beautiful materials, great fit, and they won’t fall apart as quick as other brands. And I’m a 34-36f/g, so trust me when I say they’re worth it, especially if you can get them on sale.
Now I wish the modeling world would not be prejudice against short people!
+1
Don’t you mean IMG, not ING?
How is she “plus-sized” and Kate Upton not?
Wow! She is about the most stunning woman I have seen in a long time. So not chubby but with everything in perfect proportion and nicely covered. She should be a Victoria Secret model – would out shine 99% of those girls