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Model Ashley Graham has been chosen to be the first plus-sized covergirl of British Vogue – but not everyone seems enthusiastic about the body positive idea.
Some fashion designers refused to dress her for the shoot for the January 2017 issue.
British Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Alexandra Shulman shared in her Editor’s Letter that Coach gladly lent their clothing to Graham yet other companies snubbed the plus-sized model.
READ MORE: Ashley Graham’s New Barbie Has Touching Thighs and All (VIDEO)
“[Coach] was enthusiastic about dressing a woman who is not a standard model, but sadly there were other houses that flatly refused to lend us their clothes,” Shulman writes. “It seems strange to me that while the rest of the world is desperate for fashion to embrace broader definitions of physical beauty, some of our most famous fashion brands appear to be travelling in the opposite – and, in my opinion, unwise – direction.”
So why didn’t they want to participate? Designer Christian Siriano, who creates collections that promote diversity, tells Elle that many others don’t follow suit because it requires “a lot of time and a lot of work.”
Jamie Feldman – Huffington Post Fashion Editor – thinks this example reflects the reality of the modeling industry reluctance to embody the new inclusive norm. “It seems designers simply don’t want to associate themselves with the stigma that comes with bodies over a certain size,” Feldman writes.
READ MORE: Ashley Graham Goes Makeup Free for Vogue
Graham posted one of the photos from the British Vogue shoot on Instagram. In the caption, she includes an excerpt from her magazine interview. “For 10 years I’d been told I was always going to be a catalogue girl, never a cover girl,” she says. “Well, I got with @imgmodels and did five covers in a year, boom, boom, boom.”
While some designers may be reluctant to embrace the progressive shift, British Vogue and Coach give us hope for positive change in the modeling industry. Watch Ashley Graham prove her supermodel status in the Vogue video above.
