An article on Daily Mail: “No more size zero!” Former plus-size model Crystal Renn calls for size 8 samples so magazines feature more diverse body shapes. Crystal Renn (was an inbetweenie with a size 42-44 EU) calls for sending out bigger sample sizes to magazines for fashion shoots.

The 26-year-old believes that designers should change from the standard US size zero or 2 (30 and 32 EU) to a US size 8 (EU 38). “By having a size 38 EU/ 8 US sample, you are giving freedom to a designer,”  she said at a panel discussion hosted by The Model Alliance as part of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week at Pace University in New York.

What a beautiful quote: “Modelling is about beauty, but it’s also an energy. That’s not a size”.

Totally AGREE and I can only support this statement made by Crystal. I think if stylist can use samples in size 38 they can choose a model in size 34, 36, 38 EU and maybe a size 40 EU to work with. Even in this day and age it’s not easy to get beautiful clothes in larger sizes to work with at the beginning of the season. If samples would be larger, there would be no excuse anymore to show size diversity!

Crystal always has been ‘my muse’ for ‘style has no size’. I loved her when she was a size 42-44 EU and I love her being a size 38 now. Below, see a collage of her in different sizes…

“Most of the models are going to be size 36 and 38 EU, and you could have 40 EU. If a really amazing model walked in who was a size zero, you would tailor the dress down to her.”
Crystal did have praise for designer Zac Posen, thanks to his attempts to add diversity to the catwalk by using a variety of different body shapes in his models.

In 2009, the editor of British Vogue accused designers of forcing magazines to hire skinnier models to fit the clothes they make. Alexandra Shulman said that many of the garments sent out to magazines for photoshoots are so small they do not even fit the star models. 

In a strongly-worded letter not intended for publication, she said she had been forced to hire girls ‘with jutting bones and no breasts or hips’, simply so they could get into the garments. But in May 2012 the Health Initiative was created, a pact between the 19 international Editors of Vogue to encourage a healthier approach to body image within the industry.

The editor said Vogue was now regularly retouching photographs to make models look bigger and healthier.
“We have now reached a point where many of the sample sizes don’t comfortably fit even the established star models,” read the letter, which was sent to the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Prada and Versace.

Chris Gay, president of Marilyn Model Agency, told the assembled guests: “The industry standards are ridiculous. They’re not standards a woman can keep through her life or her career … You’re replacing good models with new models because of unrealistic standards.”