Big and beautiful, meet a curvy new kind of cover girl
Larger ladies, abandon the awful tent-like clothes and learn to love your voluptuous figures, writes Andrea Smith
Sunday September 07 2008
Last Sunday, I spent a lovely afternoon watching 27 beautiful, confident women shimmying and sashaying their way down a catwalk in the Radisson hotel, dressed in the latest fabulous cutting-edge fashion.
Nothing unusual about that you might think, except that rather than the tall slim models with razor-sharp cheekbones that we usually see gracing the ramps, these glamorous models ranged from size 14 to size 32.
The event was being held to find the next cover girl for SimplyBe, the fantastic and much-needed online home shopping company for plus-sized women. What I loved about the occasion was that it proved that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and that confidence and a positive attitude are extremely attractive qualities.
Many of the 27 finalists had come through a process of self-acceptance to get to the point where they could put themselves forward to be a cover girl, such as the woman who was previously in a relationship with a guy who told her every day that she was fat and ugly.
After being interviewed by the judges, who included Caroline Morahan, Brenda Donohue and Alan Hughes, Sarah Doyle from Stepaside, Co Dublin, waltzed off with the title of the most curvaceous woman in Ireland.
"I thought the whole thing was fantastic," says Celia Holman Lee, who put the fashion show together along with the lovely Tara McMahon, herself the perfect embodiment of the SimplyBe ethic of embracing your curves with style.
"You could go out and buy 10 magazines today and you won't see a curvy model in any of them. Size will always be an issue in fashion, and it will never be any different unless it changes from the top at the collections shown in Paris, Milan and New York."
When it comes to weight, I'm a size 26-28, weighing in at 17 stone on a skinny day, but I truly don't have a problem with it in terms of how it makes me feel about myself. I'm not condoning obesity, and although I'm thankfully well and healthy, ultimately my heart would probably thank me if I had eaten one or two (hundred) less Star Bars over the years. Truthfully though, they tasted far nicer than rice cakes and raisins.
And actually I think it's far unhealthier to be negative and depressed, hiding yourself away and thinking your life is ruined because you have a flabby stomach or thunder thighs.
Of course it would be lovely to be slim, but I can confidently predict that I never will be anything other than amply proportioned. It used to make me feel ashamed and awkward, until I came to the realisation that most women weren't happy with their appearance, or aspects of it, no matter what size they were.
As I encountered legions of incredibly attractive women fretting about perceived flaws, lines and spare pounds here and there, it finally dawned on me that, in a world that holds all sorts of magical possibilities, we waste an unforgivable amount of time wishing ourselves thinner, taller, prettier or younger.
Life is precious and far too short, so wouldn't it better for us to stop fretting about the cellulite on our bums, and start concentrating on what's going on in our heads?
"I love my body now, but I didn't as a teenager," says Caroline Morahan. "I adored fashion and would see models going down the ramp and feel inadequate. It was only when I was in my 20s that I realised that I was never going to be a six-foot-one Brazilian model, and that's okay. I'd rather have a fulfilled life and enjoy my chocolate fondant, than live like Liz Hurley eating lentils."
As the head of a modelling agency, Celia believes that whether you're big or small, confidence is the key to everything.
"I have pals who are size 18 or 20, and when they come into the room I don't notice below their necks because they are amazing human beings," she says. "And on the other hand, I would be trying to beat confidence into these young ones who look like goddesses, because they don't have it either."
It's a sentiment echoed by Caroline, who believes that the diet and cosmetic industries are going through the roof because women are desperate to emulate the celebrities they see in the media.
"We are living in an age of insanity, and we need to reclaim our power," she says. "What I loved about the SimplyBe competition was that the women we met are the ones who have taken off the blindfolds and realised that they are perfectly fine as they are, because unless you're an underwear model, you really don't need to have perfect thighs."
When Caroline lost weight after a month-long illness last year, she was shocked at the praise she received from many of the industry people when she went back to work on the Off the Rails Live shows.
"They were saying that I was wasting away, and telling me I looked fabulous in the same breath," she says incredulously, adding that she was so ill that her mum had to come and help her as she was unable to walk unaided to the bathroom. "I said to them, 'This is the face of death. I had a full body infection, was vomiting continuously and still feel like crap, and you're telling me I look great?' "
The reality is that the larger a woman becomes physically, the smaller the space she occupies in a society that that places a premium on physical attractiveness. And even if you come to a peaceful acceptance of yourself on a personal level, other people may not share your perspective because of their own issues and prejudices.
If the truth be told, I'm still a bit hurt that I was deemed unsuitable for a receptionist's position more than a decade ago on the grounds that I wasn't attractive enough, a decision made by someone who announced on another occasion that I would have great legs if only I was slimmer!
I like to dress glamorously, doing the best I can within the confines of what I've got, and it saddens me to see other big women hiding behind plain shapeless clothes in a misguided attempt to deflect attention from themselves. In a world where there is so much more that is important and wonderful going on than who is a size zero, wouldn't it be nice if we could embrace life colourfully and joyfully no matter what we look like, and permit one another to simply be ourselves?
www.simplybe.ie or Tel: 1800 81 88 88
- Andrea Smith
