Plus-size models get represented for the first time in Australian Fashion Week

At a time when the definition of beauty is being challenged around the world, Australia has taken a step forward to question its standards, associating itself with a plus-size runway show. According to a CNN report, Australian Fashion Week hosted the first ever inclusive show this month. Take a look.

Per the report, modelling agent Chelsea Bonner “secured catwalk spots” for plus-sized women, but it was not easy. She told the publication, “The challenge every season, to get one, two or three models over a size 12 onto a fashion week runway, is enormous. The amount of time it takes, the amount of convincing you have to do — it’s just a real battle.”

In order to represent these women, Bonner took matters in her own hands, and her agency, Bella Management — which has around 60 “fuller-figured models” — organised the first-ever runway show dedicated to plus-size brands at the event.
“I thought, ‘You know what, I just want to do it myself’. And once everyone sees how perfect it is, it may just help break down all of those old, outdated, preconceived ideas about what a model is and what a woman looks like,” she told CNN.

Bonner took to Instagram as well to share snippets from the show, with the hashtag “#thecurveedit”.

According to a Guardian report, this is the first time in Australian Fashion Week’s 26-year hory that such a thing has happened. ‘Curve model’ Caitlín was elated to be a part of the event. She took to Instagram to write, “Thank you so much to @bellamanagement for the invite to #thecurveedit runway show. The first dedicated plus size runway in Australian hory! Change is happening and I’m so grateful to be involved in a hory-making moment in Australian fashion.”

“It is the most amazing feeling seeing your body type represented in fashion,” she added.
Last year, the event had drawn a lot of criticism for its lack of diversity, with art and model Basjia Almaan writing, “I’m pretty disappointed at how much of a process it was for space to be made for someone like myself. This show was not diverse, it was tokenic… Yes I’m a curve model but I’m still palatable, I’m a size 12-14, where were the BIGGER bodies…”

Per the Guardian report, when Bonner had proposed the idea for a plus-size runway to IMG — a US-based company that owns Australian Fashion Week — she was “welcomed with open arms”.

The fashion week happened in Sydney from May 9 to 13.
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