Fashion School

WITH this months Italian Vogue cover under her size-16 belt, Australian model Robyn Lawley is ample proof you dont have to be thin to be big in fashion.

The 21-year-old also appeared on the cover of the April edition of French Elle and has returned to Australia to shoot campaigns for Myer and strut her stuff with local magazines.

“I think we are breaking down barriers at the moment,” Lawley said. “I feel confident and beautiful and I’m a size 16.”

The beauty’s confidence has been hard-won. Lawley started modelling in Sydney at 16 years old and was initially overwhelmed by pressure to be thin. “After a year of crazy dieting to try to stay under a size 10, I gave up and let my body recover,” she said.

“Two years later my sister suggested I see Chelsea Bonner at Bella Models, because every time we saw an editorial in a magazine using models who were over size 10 they were from her agency. She signed me on the spot.”

Bonner started Bella Models nine years ago and is slowly seeing the fashion industry embrace women who don’t fit into the miniscule clothing samples supplied by European labels.

“This has been years in the making,” Bonner said. “Chelsea is leading the charge. Her photographs with Italian Vogue show that when a beautiful woman works with the best photographers and the best clothes the results are incredible.”

Lawley is part of a select group of plus-size models breaking down barriers in the industry. American plus-size model Crystal Renn has appeared in numerous international magazines and is currently ranked number 21 in the world on modelling website models.com.

But with a photograph of Australian model Catherine McNeil altered to make her arm look thinner appearing on the Twitter picture feed of Britain’s influential Love Magazine this month, there is further progress to be made.

“Skinny has been in for so long,” Lawley said. “Many fashionistas still determine a person’s beauty by their size. For me to starve myself to appease other people’s idea of what is fashionable is just not on the cards.”

Now based in New York, Lawley has signed with a Milan agency alongside supermodels Raquel Zimmermann and Natalia Vodianova.

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Tags: 16 Model, Model