Crystal Renn is, at this point in time, the highest paid plus-size model, while also being one of the most appreciated. As such, it’s no wonder Evans has chosen her to be the face and body of the latest collection, a line that places lots of emphasis on style, class and keeping up with the trends, while also offering all of these in plus sizes, as the Daily Mail informs.

It’s not so much for the fact that Renn weighs more than other models that both fashion people and regular women love her, they say, but rather because she used to be once close to a size 0 and she’s now willing to talk about that ordeal. In fact, this model, a very healthy size 16 right now, is using even the launch of the new Evans line to draw attention and warn other women of what is lurking behind the glossy, apparently fabulous façade of the fashion industry.

And she does so from her own experience: as we also told you a while back, Renn suffered from anorexia and almost killed herself trying to be the size accepted by the industry as “normal.” “They handed me a copy of American Vogue. It was filled with gorgeous, slender women like Gisele. They said, ‘If you want to do well in this business, you have to lose at least nine inches from your hips.’ I’m a naturally fairly large girl, and so going down to a size zero (UK size 4) was hell for me, especially in my teenage years when my body needed to be growing.” Renn says in an interview published on the occasion of the launch of the new collection, as cited by the Mail.

“I often felt dizzy and weak and after a while my hair started falling out. I had stabbing pains in my stomach, and it would sear through my throat and neck and mouth. I was starving myself. I only ate vegetables for breakfast, lunch and for dinner. Sometimes I’d have soup – and perhaps jelly for sweetness. Because of all the exercise I did with my starving body, I wore away my joints and they ached all the time. My feet shrank a shoe size. It was ridiculous.” the model further recalls.

At the time, she thought being a high-fashion model was the only way she could make a name for herself in the industry, which is why she was appalled by the mere mention that she should give plus-size modeling a try. However, now that she’s one and has lived through such a terrible ordeal, she has come to learn that women who have “real” bodily dimensions are also gorgeous, stylish and trendy. This is, of course, the message that the new Evans line is also trying to send out.