It seems everytime we manage to forget the ridiculous #droptheplus hash tag that started circulating on social media a couple of years ago, it seems to creep back into our world.
We couldn’t help but click on this article today in the Daily Mail with one of the key ‘drop the plus’ advocates, model, Stefania Ferrario who said that the term ‘plus size is damaging minds’.
Stefania has long objected to being referred to as a plus size model, because she isn’t, she is just a model and that is how she would like to be considered. But the problem Stefania isn’t with the plus size fashion industry, the problem is with the straight size world. While she may want to be on a straight size board, shooting main fashion campaigns, overall, it is the mainstream straight sized fashion industry rejecting models for their size, not the plus industry. It is the straight sized industry negatively impacting, not as implied, the plus size community.
‘I think certain labels do have a negative impact and it’s easier to completely get rid of a word than to try to change its connotational meaning,’ Ferrario previously said,
Read more: Daily Mail
But the problem isn’t with the term plus size and the negativity is from you not directed at you.
The plus size industry has boomed in the last five years and with it a host of models and influencers who are happy to be associated with the a game changing part of fashion. If you don’t want to be associated with being a ‘plus size’ model, simply don’t shoot for plus size clients. We agree that Stefania isn’t plus size, so why continue to try and take ownership and banish a phrase, movement and a community that is nothing to do with her.
‘Plus size’ fashion is more than just clothing, it is a statement from women that they will not be silenced, that the industry has listened and that community power and spirit has revolutionised the fashion industry and we will be damned if we let the phrase that has allowed so many women to identify themselves positively with fashion be brushed aside… just check out #psfashion #psblogger #psootd
We get to an extent what Stefania is saying. Calling size 12 women plus size is ridiculous, but NOT because it is offensive. It is simply because it is false. And the plus size community for a long time has rejected the idea that plus size starts at a 12. Plus size shoppers and influencers have loudly called out brands who use models that do not represent them. Stefania’s problem should be with the wider fashion industry – not the phrase plus size. Eliminating the terminology will not make mainstream, straight size brands accept varied size models any quicker but it is a sure way of trying to disappear actual plus sized bodies away from the mainstream again.
We will always be about #keeptheplus because the term belongs to a group of amazing women who will not be silenced.