14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, word got out that Ashley Graham, who is a US size 14, would be the first plus-size model to be featured in the Swimsuit Issue of the Sports Illustrated magazine, the edition with Hannah Davis on the cover.
It later emerged that she wouldn’t actually be in the magazine with the other models, but rather appear in an ad run by Sports Illustrated. Still, it was better than nothing at all. Turns out that there is a plus-size model featured with the others, and you can find her in the Rookie Section.
Robyn Lawley, the girl who wrote history
Her name is Robyn Lawley and she’s a gorgeous woman who models as plus-size because she doesn’t fit the standards set by the fashion industry for regular models: she’s a size 12 and is 6’ 2’’ (1.88 m) tall. She isn’t even close to what we would call plus-size in real life, but this is how the industry works.
This isn’t Lawley’s “first” when it comes to breaking records in fashion: she is also the first plus-size girl to be the face and body for Ralph Lauren, and is among the first models to propose a different representation of beauty in fashion spreads and the media.
You can see her for Sports Illustrated in the video and the Instagram photo below. She is gorgeous and she is very grateful to have been featured in the famous Swimsuit Issue.
Don’t call her plus-size
Lawley has been around for some time now and she’s gotten plenty of media attention in the past, especially after she was signed by Ralph Lauren. Whenever she talks about her experience with modeling and the way the industry treats women who make a living in front of the camera, she always insists that we need to rid ourselves of this habit of labeling models.
A beautiful body, she argues, is a beautiful body, so there’s no need to label it plus-size or whatever. You don’t call Kate Moss, who is a size 2 to 4, a small-size, so why does the industry feel the need to use the plus-size label and somehow give it a negative meaning?
Much like the aforementioned Ashley Graham, Robyn says a beautiful body can be regarded as such no matter the height, shape or weight, because the only thing that should matter is that it’s healthy.
She, for one, makes it a point of staying so, by eating healthy foods and staying active. However, she once said, she would never starve or deprive herself just so she could have a thigh gap.
Ahhhhhhh I'm beyond ecstatic to join the amazing @si_swimsuit family!!!! If someone told me at the beginning of my career that this would happen I would of said "tell em his dreamin" haha! Thankyou @mj_day @jamesmacari @ja_neyney @darciebaum and the whole SI awesome peeps for embracing who I am in the 2015 issue!!!!! #letsallstraddlecanoes #SISwim #2015rookie A photo posted by Robyn Lawley (@robynlawley1) on Feb 5, 2015 at 8:05am PST
