Plus-size model Marquita Pring made headlines when she revealed she uses padding to please clients. Marquita is a size 12-14. But when companies hire plus-size models, they want very plus-size models.
"We have to maintain our size and be careful not to fluctuate too drastically," Marquita admitted. Lose too much weight, she told Women's Wear Daily, and you won't look big enough.
With skinny runway models being told they're too big and plus-size models being told they're too small, is there a place for an average-sized girl? Fashionista raised this question, sitting down with model Katie Halchishick to talk about her "Healthy is the New Skinny" campaign.
Halchishick, 26, was signed as a plus-size model in her teens. She was quickly encouraged to get bigger, getting her weight up to 200 pounds -- and scoring tons of modeling gigs as a result. But when she lost the weight, reaching 145 pounds, she saw all those jobs disappear. Like Pring, she started to use padding... but also began to look for a better solution.
Filling a niche that seemed not to exist, Halchishick started a modeling agency that caters to models sized 6-10. Calling it Natural Model Management, the emphasis is on staying healthy rather than skinny (or overweight, for that matter).
It's still an uphill battle, Halchishick told Fashionista. But there is a promising market among the mass-retailers, like J.C. Penney's and Kohl's, who want healthy-looking women.
Will these "average" girls ever make it to Milan and Paris runways? Maybe not. But there should at least be a place in the modeling world for healthy, normal-sized women, whether in a Macy's commercial or magazine shoot... no padding necessary.
Read more about Halchishick's Natural Model Management at Fashionista.com and throw in your two cents below: is there a place in the modeling world for "normal-size" girls?