Using Plus-Size Models on the Catwalk Is ‘Irresponsible,’ Dangerous

Just recently at the Sydney Fashion Festival, department store Myer hosted a Big Is Beautiful show, using only plus-size models. The Australian is arguing that this is just as worse and irresponsible as using size 0 girls.

In a piece that begins with “BIG can be beautiful but fat should not be in fashion,” the publication argues that using women who are definitely overweight as models is sending a very wrong message to the entire world.

There’s nothing wrong with using normal sized women as models for clothes on the catwalk, but hiring overweight women for the job means landing in the other extreme, at the opposite pole of size 0.

“Most of the models looked healthy but some looked obese. While most fashion festivals ban models for being too skinny, why is it OK to see fat women on the runway?” The Australian asks.

“There is a place for women of all sizes in the fashion media, as seen by the positive response to a plus-size shoot with Lawley in this month’s Vogue Australia, but obese models send just as irresponsible a message about the need for healthy eating and exercise as models with protruding clavicles and ribcages,” the publication further writes.

While fashion models are not the same thing as role models, people tend to perceive them as such. With this in mind, The Australian explains why the industry is partial to slimmer women: simply because clothes look much better on a thin woman.

It also says that heavier and normal-sized women can very well learn how to dress from skinny models, they don’t necessarily need to see overweight models on the catwalk for it, especially since this sets a very dangerous precedent.

“Fashion is a world of fantasy carried out by smoke, mirrors and significant retouching, often to make models look bigger rather than thinner. The smoke cleared and the mirror cracked yesterday with the plus-size show delivering a confronting reality,” The Australian writes of the Big Is Beautiful event.

“Fashion Festival Sydney is about selling clothes and the plus-size market deserves to be represented but let’s not add another double standard to the fashion industry by celebrating people being overweight,” the publication pleads.