Vogue Posts Diverse Body Slideshow in Wake of 'Plus-Sized' Controversy

Either someone worked fast or this is a case of perfect timing: As consumers and cultural critics become more vocal about the exclusion of diverse body shapes from the world of fashion, Vogue has dropped a slideshow called “The Best Lingerie Comes in All Sizes” that, yes, actually includes a fairly diverse range of beautiful women modeling underwear.

As we discussed yesterday, “plus-sized” in modeling is measured on an entirely different scale than “plus-sized” outside of modeling. A model who is a size 10—Myla Dalbesio, for example—will likely be called plus-sized by her agency (or by Elle), even though she is considered straight-sized when out and about out the street.

Of course, the real problem isn’t so much who gets labeled as “plus-sized” (again, a pretty fluid term), but the way that models who are bigger than a size 12 go almost completely unrepresented in fashion.

Whether it’s pandering in the wake of the Elle controversy or not, the Vogue slideshow does successfully demonstrate that it’s not only women who are sizes 00-12 who can make clothes look good. Now, if their web editorial staff could talk to their mag editorial staff and convince them to use a more diverse range of models on a regular basis, things might actually start to change.