Now this is fashion news we love to hear: Robyn Lawley is on the cover of the March issue of Madison magazine (scroll down to see the cover). This makes her the first Australian plus size model to grace the cover of an Australian fashion magazine. Huzzah!
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Aussie model, Robyn Lawley has already had phenomenal success overseas in her short career; appearing on the covers of both Italian Vogue and French Elle. And now, Australian Vogue is following suit and breaking with 52 years of tradition to feature her as the first plus-size model to grace its pages.
Now we know that a size 14 is not plus-size in any sense of the word, but finally we are starting to see some changes in the way magazines are treating body image. This is something that Vogue Australia editor, Kirstie Clements, acknowledged in the September issue’s editors letter.
“This is the first time Vogue Australia has shot a larger model and of course now that we have done it, I ask myself why we didn’t do it sooner. But that’s because Robyn is especially gorgeous. I went to the shoot to meet her and was transfixed by her beauty and poise. She is a truly super duper model.
When a plus size model first turns up to the studio, she may be an anomaly to a team normally used to working with size 6’s, but once photographer Max Doyle started shooting Robyn, we quickly readjusted our preconceived notions of beauty. She doesn’t actually look plus size to me at all now.
I said to a colleague on set later that day, “And men like curves don’t they?” He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Yes Kirsty, we certainly do” was his laconic reply. It’s an interesting conversation – the world of high fashion and fuller-figured women. One that needs to be continued,” Clements said.
Here are the shots of Lawley in the September issue of Vogue, along with some career highlights:
Top Comments
REAL SIZE! Yay!! She is gorgeous but not plus size. Probably plus size compared to all the skinny, skinny models though.....
I have to say, seeing someone who looks like she's smaller than me (in some photos) being called "plus size" is more upsetting to my self esteem than seeing much skinnier women who I already know are an unrealistic image o the majority of women. It's a disgrace that she's being called plus size, and it's also annoying that they've effectively cut her middle out of all those photos so that her exposed skin is just her fatless calves and forearms. That says to me that they're really still scared of her fat and scared of her curves. We need to be embracing both as a common feature of women's bodies, not hiding them in every photo, particularly not when that's the whole point of featuring her in the first place! It almost reminds me of those Kaiser ads a few years ago "apple or pear" and "column or hourglass" which features near-identical models with no discernible body difference (and with their heads cut off). In this case, theyve touted a "curves" issue and then hidden all her curves!!