14 DAY TRIAL // The times are a-changin’ in the fashion industry. In a clear sign that the industry is moving towards body variety and acceptance of different body shapes, this year’s edition of the prestigious Pirelli Calendar includes a few photos from a plus-size model: size 13 Candice Huffine.
And she’s absolutely gorgeous!
Before you say that size 13 is not “plus-size,” we should probably note that models used on catwalks are usually a size 0-2, with only a few going a couple more sizes up. Anything past a size 8 is “plus-size” in an industry that values thinness above everything else.
In recent years, more and more voices have joined the “cause,” urging designers to use a wider array of body shapes and sizes for their shows, which would eventually lead to the disappearance of this line between “models” and “plus-size models.”
Magazines have also started running more plus-size editorials, and in time some of the biggest designer houses have embraced this new, much healthier trend.
The idea is to stop sending young girls and women the message that only skinny is beautiful and / or fashionable. And there’s no better woman out there than Candice to prove that a lady can be gorgeous and utterly sensual no matter her weight or the number on her clothes, as the first photos from her Pirelli spread, included in the gallery below, can confirm.
In two of the shots, she’s wearing a latex corset and a black robe, with her hair done big, resembling some of the screen sirens of a time long gone by. A third one is a red-tinted close-up of her bust and face, and it’s scorching hot.
Confirmation that Candice would become the first-ever plus-size model to be included in the Pirelli Calendar came last week. The photos will be included in the 50th anniversary issue, which comes with a fetish theme.
“My presence on this set – the most glamorous in the world – is a sign that things are really changing,” Candice says, as cited by the Daily Mail.
She has done several prestigious magazines before, like Vogue, W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and i-D, but none is as prestigious as Pirelli, which is issued in limited copies and is distributed only to a select few.
Styled by former Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld and shot by fashion photographer Steven Meisel, the spread will have a vintage, fetish feel and will include, beside Candice, famous supermodels like Adriana Lima, Isabeli Fontana, Anna Ewers, Joan Smalls, and Sasha Luss. The 50th anniversary issue will be out in November.
However, this isn’t the first time that Pirelli does something this out of the ordinary it almost feels groundbreaking: the 2007 edition featured goddess actress Sophia Loren in bed. She was 72 years old when she did the spread.
[Update, July 31, 2014]: Candice is not the first plus-size model to grace the Pirelli Calendar, Sophie Dahl was in 1999. She is actually the third one, as Pollyanna McIntosh appeared in the 2004 edition, long before her.
