Ashley Graham, the woman who changed fashion forever
Ashley Graham is an American super model, born in 1987. She modeled quite a lot after being discovered in 2000 in America – she was, back then, introduced to the world as a “plus size model”.
Born in 1987, Graham is considered the most recognized “plus-sized model” on the face of the earth at the moment. Known for her body activism and her openness on what real women look like, Graham is one of the ambassadors of the “real beauty” movement, which intends to unclasp the unrealistic beauty standards from the minds of the women of today. Tough honorable, Ashley Graham’s fight has not been without obstacles.
In 2015, she became the first ever plus size model to be featured on the cover of the sports illustrated magazine (see below).
Not only was this ground breaking news – it also marked a tremendous change in the fashion industry. For as long as I can remember, I have associated fashion with over 1.75m tall women who looked like they hadn’t had a bite to eat in month. The cult of the incredibly skinny, perfect skinned woman has caused a lot of damage in the fashion industry and all thos affected by it – and Ashley Graham knows it’s time for a change.
Alongside her powerful message of body acceptance, she managed to show full figured women's sensuous as well as sophisticated side – in fact, she demonstrated that not only bigger women (one might even say normal women) are just as capable of everything as skinnier women in the magazines would be – she also proves that they can be beautiful, and on the face of magazines – and even more recently, on the runway.
As a matter of fact, Graham was on the cover of the very prestigious, high fashion, Vogue UK magazine, in January 2017. This didn’t just happen however. Numerous designers refused to work with Graham – Coach, a house of fashion and luxury founded in 1941 dressed Ashley Graham from head to toe in her cover. Alexandra Schulman, former editor in Chief of Vogue UK, pointed out that “houses (…) flatly refused to lend (…) their clothes”.
She further expressed her despair in the editor's note:
“It seems strange to me that while the rest of the world is desperate for fashion to embrace broader definitions of physical beauty, some of our most famous fashion brands appear to be traveling in the opposite — and, in my opinion, unwise — direction.”
Click on the photo for the full article on self.com
In an interview with Racked , she explained that it was never really the fashion industry that initiated the body criticism she received - it was more “society” as a whole.
““It was people looking at me and saying, ‘You’re a model?’ In reality, what we need to be doing is not just changing the fashion industry but challenging the perception at home of what beauty really is.”
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Fashion’s standard of beauty is evolving. In March 2017, Vogue reported Michael Kors’ point of view on the matter:
“That fashion conformity, where all the girls are the same size and they’ve all got the same hairdo, it looks old-fashioned to me now,” he says. “What feels fresh and modern is a sense of surprise, like when you’re in the city, watching all kinds of people go by on the street. What eye candy!”
Shane Oliver, creator of Hood by Air, believes in only one criteria – “who can carry my clothes?”
Same goes for the now iconic brand Vêtements – the brand director, Demna Gvasalia describes his brand as follows:
““Vetements is based on a pragmatic approach. It would be quite inauthentic for our collections to be shown only on traditional models, as we don’t see many of them on the street, walking around. We are interested in exploring and evolving the reality around us.””
The standards of fashion are evolving. There are things Ashley Graham used to get told – like the fact that she would never be on a vogue cover, for example – that just aren’t true anymore. She is the one woman that managed to break that stereotype – that cult of the ultra-thin model left starving on the runway.
To prove how important the change she has brought about is, take the show of Prabal Gurung, at the New York fashion week of february 2018, where Graham walked the runway alongside super models Gigi and Bella Hadid.
High fashion changes tend to influence society and its beauty standards. 67% of women in America wear a size 14 or more. It was about time the industry started representing those figures (and the numbers as well).
Body activist for what she rebranded the “full-figured women”, Ashley graham is still very careful about the message she is sending. The line between acceptance of one’s self and letting go of all self-care is quite thin – and she knows it.
If you follow Ashley on social media in a borderline stalk-ish way like I do, you’ll realise that in between all her travels and her days of work, she works out a lot. Her fight for the “real women” does not condone obesity in any way. As a matter of fact, she is the promoter of a very healthy lifestyle, based on correct nutrition and physical activity.
Being a model takes a lot of work (or so I've heard) – and being Ashley Graham is no exception. Being healthy isn’t about being thin – it’s about finding a certain kind of balance between all that workout and the food you actually want to eat (none of that kale chips nonsense if you want my opinion).
Ashley Graham tells women that there is no one on this earth who should be telling them what to look like. And there isn’t. I mean look at me – I'm very far from the stereotypical size 0 and you’re inside my fashion blog right now.
It takes very big women to change such a stable industry. And Ashley Graham is just the push fashion needed - and I can only hope she will inspire other young (and even very old) women to accept who they are and what they look like – and to never compare themselves to a photoshopped perfect woman on the cover of a magazine again.