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Laura Wells with sister Courtney and brother Ryan. Taken by Tim Wells. Used with permission.When will the measuring stop and thin no longer be in? Image by Sarah Hamilton.

Some people are terrified of baring all; scared of others seeing their scars and scales, yet even those with a perfect body are often afraid of showing too much skin. Take Sarah Jessica Parker for example; despite her lead role on the award-winning and promiscuous Sex and the City, she was never once captured completely naked in her role as Carrie Bradshaw. Or, Lily Allen’s recent comments in Cosmopolitan Magazine: “I do [care] deep down. When I see something horrible about myself on the Internet, I get upset… I struggle with body issues daily.”

However, plus-size model, Laura Wells has no problem with the skin she’s in, well at least not anymore. Once considered “the fat one in the family”, cutting the labels out of her size-14 clothes and chaperoning her 13-year-old “skinny” sister on modeling tours of New York and Milan, the now 24-year-old made history last August, as the face of Big Gal Modeling (BGM) Agency in the first Rosemount Sydney Fashion Festival that showcased a range from plus-size label City Chic.

This was the first step beyond what has been labeled the “skinny mind-set” and one Wells took with leaps and bounds, a feat that has received high praise from women internationally, sparking a trend in many to do the same.

Singer Beth Ditto recently appeared on Love, a magazine devoted to celebrating women of all shapes and sizes, while the winner of Australia’s next top model in 2009 was the curvaceous Tahnee Atkinson; and, up there with City Chic’s size 14 to 22 clothing, Myer also launched a plus-sized clothing range, to feature next to Jennifer Hawkins on the catwalk. It seems that the fashion industry is finally welcoming women beyond the size eight and onto publicly celebrating the size-eighteen.

Wells describes this as “acceptance of the different”.

“A few years ago you could go into a mainstream clothing store and clothing would stop at a size 14 or size 14 was too small and unfashionable. Now, there are companies like City Chic and others that are creating clothes for women who are larger than a size 14,” Miss Wells says.

“This caters for a whole new range of women, keeping sizes in line and making them feel better about themselves as well. And, rightly so, there’s so much positive feedback for this now.”

In fact, positive responses have spread further than simply for retailers. The audiences of magazines and television have also commended recent series such as Drop Dead Diva, a dramatic-comedy series about a model who is reincarnated as a plump lawyer, shown through skyrocketing ratings in the US and UK since 2007; as well as, The Biggest Loser, with the show rating in the top 10 Australian shows during every season. Yet, perhaps what is most astounding is the overwhelming positive reception to the nude photograph of plus-size model Lizzie Miller in the September 2009 issue of Glamour Magazine, which stimulated so much attention, both good and bad, that the publication has now dedicated entire spreads to larger models.
Such results have changed the way many see the fashion industry in general. More so, in 2008, the first empirical research into the central tenet of advertising, that is, that thin models sell more products, was undertaken, with controversial results.

The research by Phillippa Diedrichs from the University of Queensland’s Health Psychology Research Unit, which created mock advertisements to compare the selling power of typical, size 8 models and those generally label “plus size” models; found that mostly, there was no difference. It also found that body satisfaction of those women viewing the advertisements increased immediately after viewing the images of the larger models when compared with those who saw the slim models.

Kate Ellis, the federal Minister for Youth, proposed a code of conduct for magazines to mark the occasion of this study, as reported in The Sydney Morning Herald. In this, she suggested the requirement for publications, particularly of the fashion industry, to show models who were not abnormally thin and to disclose the use of digitally altered images.

However, many are worried about what the plus-sized industry says to today’s health conscious society.

“These women are not making those who are technically overweight step outside of their comfort zones and lose the weight they need to,” Personal Trainer and Fitness Coach, Ian Hammond says.

“Larger women will see plus-sized women on the catwalk and think, hey, it’s acceptable to be the way I am, I don’t need to be any different,

When will the measuring stop and thin no longer be in? Image by Sarah Hamilton.

but, really, it’s unhealthy to be that way, and plus sized models are promoting an unhealthy lifestyle.”

Indeed Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer, recently highlighted this opinion in his comments to Brigitte Magazine.

“No one wants to see curvy women [on the catwalk],” Lagerfeld was quoted as saying.

“You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.”

“The world of fashion is about dreams and illusions and it is absurd to think that women like this can embody what fashion is supposed to promote to the world,” he adds.

But such views expressed by society are on the steep decline due to the obviously well received notion of what Wells describes as ‘healthy looking’ women on the catwalk.

“It took me a long time to feel good about myself, and only recently did I start to accept my body the way it is and be happy with who I am. Health concerns are one thing, but body image and self-esteem is another. Yes you should be healthy, but you should also see yourself as beautiful, and big is beautiful.”

For related stories and to find out more about how to be happy and healthy see The Happiness Diet. Or for motivation see the multimedia piece What’s the Big Idea?