Ashley Graham has been a trailblazer in fashion as a plus-sized model.
The brunette beauty, 36, is grateful for the opportunities and success she’s had but, she also admits that some designers still balk when she asks them to dress her for an event or red carpet appearance.
On Monday, Good American’s social media channels featured a video with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl talking about inclusivity.
‘Good American and I resonate because they are all about authenticity, about being who you are and being real,’ Ashley said at the annual Good American open casting call in Los Angeles.
‘What does inclusivity means to me? It means seeing every single type of person being included,’ she added.
Ashley Graham has been a trailblazer in fashion as a plus-sized model. The brunette beauty, 36, is grateful for the opportunities and success she’s had but, she also admits that some designers still balk when she asks them to dress her for an event or red carpet appearance
‘One of my main missions in life is to be kind to everyone and to bring representation of all types of beauty and to normalize it to the fashion industry and to the world, to media, to everyone,’ she concluded.
Despite her success, Graham still faces discrimination and closed doors when she goes to some designers and fashion houses.
‘There’s still some designers that have said, ‘Sorry, we can’t, we’re just not going to design something for a bigger body,” she told People at the Good American’s open casting call event in Los Angeles over the weekend.
‘Things have changed immensely in some ways and just have had a full stop in others,’ she continued.
‘And that is why I’m not going to stop talking about my body and dressing people of larger sizes because it’s not a norm yet.’
Ashely was quick to clarify that most designers she approaches are happy to make clothes for her, especially when they are a newer brand.
But the simple fact is that making clothes for bigger people means using more fabric and more materials.
‘The industry is structured right now, making clothes that fit and look flattering on people with bigger bodies costs more money, she explained.
On Monday, Good American’s social media channels featured a video with the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl talking about inclusivity
‘Good American and I resonate because they are all about authenticity, about being who you are and being real,’ Ashley said at the annual Good American open casting call in Los Angeles’
‘What does inclusivity means to me? It means seeing every single type of person being included,’ she added
A lot of the fashion industry just isn’t set up to incorporate the making of plus-sized clothing.
And while Graham acknowledged that the industry is changing, she says there is still more progress to be made.
‘If you look at the runways, not much has changed,’ she said. ‘If you look at designers, some of them are dressing different types of bodies, but it’s not the norm.’
She mother of three pointed out that even though some magazines and media outlets are featuring bigger bodies more than they have in the past, ‘It’s been this tiny crawl.’
