MISS PLUS SIZE ENGLAND and other tidbits of greatness...

Better late than never!  I stumbled upon this quite by accident and cannot believe I didn't hear about it sooner!  The Miss England 2008 competition included the first plus size woman ever and.........get this..............she was 1st RUNNER UP!!  Our heroine is 16yr old Chloe Marshall and folks...she is stunning!  I cannot believe she did all this at such a young age!  16???  I was a complete knucklehead and emotional buffoon at 16 (pretty much right through my 20s truth be told),  and I couldn't have handled anything!  The cute guy at school looking right through me was cause of severe misery and high drama!  HOW on earth did she do it?  And kudos to England - my homeland - for having the wherewithal to make this bold move!  I'm sure there were plenty of folks totally against it.  Sad but true.  I remember a fashion show I did at the beginning of my career called La Journee Ronde.  It was downtown Montreal at a huge amphitheatre, 1000+ people attending including Fashion TV, and of course all the local newspapers.

 The write up we got in our biggest newspaper just about had me flinging myself off a pier!  It was dreadful.  They totally slagged us, saying things like 'fat girls shouldn't be parading around in their underwear' and 'this is not something the public wants to see!'  That was 1992.  Fashion TV of course were totally on board, they're no slouches, but the fall out from that show was incredible.

  Flash forward to now with our girl Chloe winning Miss Teen England then runner up in Miss England!  Boy oh boy.....what a triumph!  And just look at her standing there in all her glory next to the standard sized contestants!  Who would have the balls to do it I ask?

 

 
 
I was reading an article on Gina Crisanti a Dove Campaign model, who was talking about her experience with a modeling agency in L.A. when I happened upon the Miss England story.  Get this though, Gina Crisanti said that when she had approached a well known and reputable modeling agency, they told her they didn't do much with 'Plus Size Models'.  Friends.....Gina Crisanti is a size 6! God's trousers are you kidding me????  There she is in her pantaloonies looking absolutely adorable and sexy as all get out!  A size 6.....seriously I would need LIMBS removed to ever be a size 6 and I'm a very healthy person at a respectable size 14.  Granted, our little Gina is a petite girl and I'm an amazonian 5'9" but still.  Still! 

I met the first Plus Size Supermodel Emme many years back while working a swimwear campaign for Christina Swimwear.  She has really knocked the industry back on its bum many times over with her work and outspoken opinions on the fashion industry, women's health and the size issue.  Get a load of this:
As a preteen girl, Emme's stepfather drew on her thighs and her tummy to show her where she needed to lose weight.  A man needing his scrotum pulled up over his head if you ask me but I digress.  That  same little girl went on to be named one of People Magazine's Most Beautiful People (1994-1999) and Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year (1997) and achieved many, many triumphs!

One of my fave shows to watch is America's Next Top Model (AND Canada's, Britain's & Australia's) and they have been featuring plus size beauties for several years.  As a matter of fact we had our first ANTM Plus Size Winner Whitney in season 10 and some of the backlash from that was bloodchilling!  Even in this day and age some people seem to be actually outraged by the different body image being considered beautiful let alone acceptable.  As far as I'm concerned the fact that there are so many little girls and boys walking around agonizing about being 'too fat' screams there's a problem! 
In a word: HEALTH.  Remember the old saying, 'You can never be too rich or too thin'?........we need to undo that propaganda.  Starting with ourselves and our kids.  Sure it's challenging some days to feel good about how we look, why just the other day I tried on some shiny leggings in Winners.......just about fled the scene of the crime doing Mach 3 with my hair on fire!!!  But we MUST stay focused and keep our perspectives.  HEALTH.  Be healthy.  That's all I'm saying!

I'm going to make myself a Weight Watchers Tortilla with Light Peanut Butter.  Delicious!!!!

Oh and one last gasp.....here's an image for you: Isabelle Caro a French model still fighting for her life.

Just sayin....