Ashley Graham opened up about why body diversity matters on the runway
Ashley Graham is a beautiful and powerful force who continuously shatters fashion industry barriers and publicly challenges beauty standards — from appearing in H&M advertisement campaigns alongside non-plus size models, to penning widely read essays about body acceptance.
Graham has continued to smash modeling norms at this year’s New York Fashion Week. Yesterday, she walked in the second NYFW show for her plus-size lingerie line for young women. Graham collaborated with Addition Elle, a plus-size brand, to create the gorgeous lingerie.
After the beautiful show in which models of all different sizes slayed the entire audience, Graham spoke to Mic about why it is vital that NYFW runways feature so many different kinds of bodies. The fact is, what goes on in such visible spaces impacts women who want to be models and women in general society.
Ashley says:
"I was a girl in middle school who never had representation of a body like mine... I also went through high school thinking that I was ugly and fat because I had cellulite and, like, fat in weird places and nobody had a body like mine... And you have seen so many different types of bodies in this runway show, some of them were in clothes, some of them were in lingerie, and young girls get to see what they look like."
Graham also elaborated on the need to normalize plus-size bodies in runway shows, while still highlighting the designers who use plus-size models:
"No one's talking about [how model] Marquita Pring walked in the Tome show... We want models that are curvy to be integrated into the high-end, straight-sized world. But we also want to talk about those designers that are doing it. It's happening. Right before our eyes."
Lastly, Graham left us with some wisdom about what happens when you accept your body:
"I swear I compared myself to other women for way too long, and the moment I stopped doing it I actually became successful and very happy with my skin."
We can’t wait for more runways to start representing diverse beauty.
