Size-14 Model Hayley Morley on the Catwalk at Fashion Week

This weekend at the London Fashion Week, what was until not long ago unthinkable happened: real-life models walked alongside regular models during a presentation of designer Mark Fast’s latest collection. That’s to say size-6 girls were joined by size 14 and 16 on the catwalk, in a bid to make the industry see that there was more to customers than stick-thin girls. One of the “curvier” models was student Hayley Morley, the Daily Mail says.

Hayley is just 21 years old and she’s a student. She hopes to become a surveyor but, in between exams and nights spent cramming, she also found the time to be a model, and a very appreciated one while we’re at it. Discovered a few years ago, Hayley is one of the few plus-size models to make a nice buck off modeling though, just like with Crystal Renn, her gigs are limited. Asked whether she has any intention of making fashion her sole preoccupation in life, Hayley is reticent.

She’s not about to throw her education down the drain just to be able to pursue a career as a catwalk model, she says. This (and implicitly Fashion Week) was just a thing she did because she had the time. “It is very difficult. If it wasn’t for my boyfriend, who does the same course as me, I would be in real trouble. He goes to all the lectures and tells me about them. I do have to concentrate now London Fashion Week is done. I worked very hard at school and don’t want that to go to waste,” she explained.

Still, being chosen for the aforementioned show was an honor Hayley did not remain oblivious to. “I had hundreds of messages of support from young girls and young women, saying thank you for being a more real model. I think that finally there is someone young and they feel they can relate to more than a size six model. It makes me proud,” she said after the show, as cited by the Mail.

We were also telling you in previous articles that the fashion industry is showing a marked tendency towards including larger sized models as well, though it might not yet be ready to completely eliminate size-0 girls, whose slender frame and health have repeatedly been the subject of heated debate.