Plus Size Beauty Crystal Renn to Be Featured in June Glamour Issue

Plus Size Visibility Continues In All Shapes and Sizes.

“Whether or not you have a weight problem, during Fashion Week it’s a mental game that is imposed on these girls, and so people in Fashion Week eat less and they believe they’re natural. However I don’t have to do such things.”
- Crystal Renn, to GlamChic

Way to go, Glamour! The wave of enthusiasm, support, and excitement in light of their Lizzie Miller feature inspired Glamour to continue to honor their promise: “We’ll make prominent more full figured models in our editorial content.”

According to New York Magazine, Plus Sized model Crystal Renn will be prominently featured on the cover of Glamour magazine. Per Women’s Wear Daily, the theme of the shoot is “fun in the sun.” Apparently Glamour has been enthusiastically supporting Renn ever since she was featured in a swimsuit article in a previous spread from May.

Renn just finished the cover shoot for Glamour in the luxurious island of Saint Barts, alongside two non plus size models, Alessandra Ambrosio (Victoria’s Secret muse) and Brooklyn Decker (well-known for her Sports Illustrated pictorials).

New York Magazine goes on to say that Glamour has not featured an actual model on its cover for four years–since their May 2006 issue, when Alessandra Ambrosio was the cover girl.

With the cover shoot’s size diversity and Glamour magazine’s decision to feature models on the cover yet again, it looks like Crystal Renn’s dream is coming true in short order: she’s often made open requests of sorts, to the press and general public, about accepting models as models in general, regardless of size. Renn is one of the curvy media figures who’s caught in the crossfire of the “Is She Really Plus-Sized or not?” debate.

Part of the backlash has a back-story: British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman began a not-so-quiet war of words with the fashion industry, writing letters in her own right to prominent fashion designers mostly based in America and Europe, demanding a diversity of sizes “beyond size zero.” Shulman began her in-house fashion industry campaign nearly a year ago, and had written trickles of letters here and there, prior. The seedlings have begun to take hold–as utterly divine as it is, Curvy Vogue Italia is no sudden, miraculous wunderkind.

Of special interest, Alexandra Shulman’s letters were intended to be private, and of course, were leaked to the press. Why? Because the truth will out. She’d reached her wit’s end, decrying that her editorial staff had to Photoshop-triage photographs in order to make models look larger, and demanding larger sample pieces from designers in order to save time, resources, and money in the magazine’s on location photo shoots.

“People say,” Shulman pleaded, “Why don’t we use size 12 models? I can’t if I’m going to do any new Prada, Dior, Balenciaga, or Chanel collections.”

It’s been noted that her motivation was not solely or mainly borne of activism. Fashion is indeed a business. Much of Shulman’s frustrations have to do with the costly waste of model’s, staff’s, and photographers’ valuable time expending efforts to rectify the situation, and from the word she received the public is growing tired of seeing a revolving door unhealthy-looking models.

The British Vogue editor also felt that reader dissatisfaction had something to do with the economic downturn, intuiting that readers become disheartened when they see extremely lean models wearing clothes readers themselves may never be able to buy or fit into. Readers might feel discouraged in general, seeing the image of “jutting bones,” as Shulman mentioned, which may appear lifeless and dull. Spiritless, even while rail-thin models are bathed in rich key lights and warm filmic tones.

Shulman’s courage in persisting with her demands is still admirable. The effects of her protestations parallel that of any plus size fatshionista, and so be it: the ends justify the means in several camps.

Naomi Campbell, the UK-based supermodel who’s been working on spiritual healing herself, put in her two cents at this year’s London Fashion Week, also mentioning in passing that she doesn’t find it necessary for any model to be super slim.

Crystal Renn–like Kate Dillon and several other working models of size–began her career as a non plus sized model, developed an unfortunate eating disorder, and upon healing from the illness and developing healthier diet and lifestyle choices, continued her modeling career in the more logical plus sized category.

Renn’s book “Hungry,” co-authored with Marjorie Ingall, was released in September 2009 and frankly details her experience in the fashion world through her own eyes.

Renn’s been a zaftig muse for such notables as Ruven Afanador and Steven Meisel and bears the distinction of being the only plus-size model to appear on a Harper’s Bazaar cover.

Prior to her dreamy, sun-drenched island photo shoot, Renn was a reporter on the scene for Glamour during New York Fashion Week 2010.

Related Links:

Crystal Renn’s Book “Hungry” at Amazon

Crystal Renn Homepage / Ford Models

Related Articles:

Lizzie Miller: A Revolution Takes Shape