Too fat to be a model? The picture that caused a storm in the fashion world

The Guardian ^ | 9/2/2009 | Naomi Alderman

[Saije]

Lizzie Miller is considered too large to model plus-size clothes. Is the reaction that followed the publication of this picture going to change that?

'It's a photo that measures all of three by three inches," gushes Cindi Leive, editor of US Glamour in a post on the magazine's blog, "but the letters about it started to flood my inbox literally the day Glamour hit newsstands." The picture in question, illustrating a story about body confidence, has generated more than 700 comments on the site, and featured on the US Today morning TV programme. What does it show? A beautiful, creamy-skinned naked model . . . with a small roll of stomach fat.

Lizzie Miller, the 20-year-old model in question, agrees that it's astonishing that, at 5ft 11in and 12.5 stone she's considered a "plus size" model. *****

One wouldn't have thought this would be news. As Miller says, "pretty much every picture in a magazine or ad is airbrushed . . . I don't think the public understands how much smoke and mirrors are involved in making women look like that."

[Saije]

She wouldn't make it on "More to Love".

[BBell]

useless without pictures

I hope this does not get pulled.

[Saije]

I wasn’t sure so thought I would just link. That and I don’t really know how to do it anyway. Thanks though.

[Question Liberal Authority]

What the hell is 12.5 stone? Why can’t these British papers speak English?

[SWAMPSNIPER]

She can pose for me!

[bvw]

175 lbs

[Question Liberal Authority]

Lizzie Miller is considered too large to model plus-size clothes.

From the picture, it doesn't look like she's modeling any clothes.

[cdcdawg]

she looks like she has had a baby. That’s a pretty unflattering pose. Yeah, she has a little bit of a gut, but still a beautiful woman. That said, she doesn’t look very fit for 20 years of age.

[Trod Upon]

She is kind of chunky for modeling, but then isn’t “plus size” a euphemism for flabby?. Bah, I never understood the importance of models anyway. Mannequins are cheaper and hold the clothes just as well.

[Radix]

just gross

[Victor]

Not too guilty....

[wetgundog]

she’s gotta heck of a “pooch” there...

[BlueNgold]

1 stone = 14 pounds
12.5 Stone = 175 lbs
Also commonly referred out as 12 Stone 7

[wastedyears]

What the hell is 12.5 stone? Why can’t these British papers speak English?

175lbs

[b4its2late]

Yes it is.... she’s a liberal

[muir_redwoods]

Not guilty

[cydcharisse]

Google is your friend. 175 lbs.

[cripplecreek]

[Atom Smasher]

I’m sorry, but that is just too sick! How disgusting!

[cripplecreek]

One for the ladies.

[DejaJude]

The Greeks would have loved her. Reminds me of many statues of Aphrodite.

[b4its2late]

I thought mine was bad............ Holy crap.

[potlatch]

Yikes, she’s got quite a stomach flap there! 175 lbs is not obese but it’s a bit hefty. I know a woman who weighs exactly that.

This model’s pose actually hides some of the the ‘heft’.

[BBell]

I always go here:

HTML Sandbox

I still don't know much

[stevem]

A woman who is nearly six feet tall and weighs 175 lbs, well, it says right here she need not worry all that much if she chooses to order a sandwich.

[Ronin]

Hey, she’s within my tolerances!

I have never understood why models are always so skinny they look starved.

A few years back I worked in an office with a modeling agency on the floor above. At least once a month an ambulance would show up to take one of the girls to the hospital. They’d pass out. They’d get dizzy and fall. They’d get nosebleeds that wouldn’t stop.

That gal may need to tone up a bit, but then, so do I.

I’n not casting any stones.

[potlatch]

No, I don't ‘try’ to make fun of people but it IS the topic on this thread. As I said, I know a woman who weighs that and if this woman stood up she would be as large as Michelle Obama, and we all know what is said about her.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Guilty.

[Nachoman]

They’d get dizzy and fall. They’d get nosebleeds that wouldn’t stop.

Cocaine will do that to a person.

[Tax-chick]

She’s flabby, but not particularly heavy for her height. To be honest, she looks kind of like me, only I’m 5’3”, 145 lbs., 43 years old, and I’ve had nine children.

[Sequoyah101]

I actually thought she was 40 something. 20 huh?

[cdcdawg]

somebody needs to tell her that it doesn’t get any easier over the next 20+ years.

[Ditto]

The young lady is a borderline model for Peter Paul Rubens.

It is only in the last 40 years or so that anorexia became fashionable. Before that, women were soft and curvy. See example below.

Screw the New York/Hollywood machine. Ruben's models were beautiful, healthy and very sexy women, not bulimic skeletons that the 'Fashion Mafia' keep trying to shove on us.

[deks]

ditto, Ditto... tasteful pictures and intelligent thought.

[rawhide]

[tioga]

yep, that’s fat all right.........rme.

[Vendome]

+1

[rawhide]

Lizzie Miller

[oiler]

..... NOT EVEN FOR EATING CRACKERS......

[BBell]

Guilty?

No Way!!!!!

[BBell]

I’d agree. Please note that I had not seen your post before I made mine.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I cannot tell a lie... I like skinny and petite. See my FReeper page.

[BBell]

I do too

[VOA]

“Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.”

—Sophia Loren

(definitely in my top 100 favorite quotes)

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:LeF5uznfQDsJ:www.theoldfoodie.com/2006/06/chicken-tetrazzini.html+%22Sophia+Loren%22+%22pasta%22+%22quotation%22&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

the quote is about 1/5 of the way down the page

[Liberty Valance]

Natalie Wood, Malibu, 1963

[NeoCaveman]

Not guilty!

[dalereed]

“What the hell is 12.5 stone?”

They threw 12 at the fatso and didn’t have the strength to hit with the 13th!

Had an apprentice years ago from England and he asked for the steps and everyone on the job just looked at him and laughed!

[Tainan]

Yep...Ritz or Saltines...I’ll even supply the Cheez Whiz.

[Justaham]

One stone equals 14 pounds.