Controversy has followed plus-size model Ashley Graham from groundbreaking magazine cover to groundbreaking magazine cover.
First, there was her in a bikini on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s notorious swimsuit issue, which nudged some critics, such as former SI swimsuit model Cheryl Tiegs, to claim the size 16 model “glamorized” being overweight.
Then, she appeared as the first plus-size model on the cover of Maxim with only a white button-down shirt (held, not worn). This time, her fans were angry, arguing as one commenter put it that, “Maxim obviously edited her photo to make her appear slimmer.” (All involved insisted the photos weren’t edited.)
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Now, she’s become the first plus-size model to grace the cover of Vogue — British Vogue, in her case — and, following a now familiar pattern, controversy has followed her again.
In an Editor’s Letter, British Vogue editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman said Graham’s photoshoot, which shows “her lush beauty at full advantage” was a “fairly last-minute” affair.
The reason? Many brands “flatly refused” to lend or make clothes for the model, who was outside the “sample range.”
Save for one.
“We are all very grateful to the people at Coach who, under the creative direction of Stuart Vevers, moved speedily to provide clothes for us that had to come from outside their sample range,” Shulman wrote. “They were enthusiastic about dressing a woman who is not a standard model, but sadly there were other houses that flatly refused to lend us their clothes.”
Shulman continued, opining that refusing to offer clothes that would fit a woman of Graham’s size was a mistake.
“It seems strange to me that while the rest of the world is desperate for fashion to embrace broader definitions of physical beauty, some of our most famous fashion brands appear to be travelling in the opposite – and, in my opinion, unwise – direction,” Shulman wrote.
(It should be noted, too, that size 16 is now the average size of an American woman.)
The Huffington Post’s Jamie Feldman agreed, calling the behind-the-scenes revelations about the British Vogue shoot “infuriating.”
“It seems designers simply don’t want to associate themselves with the stigma that comes with bodies over a certain size,” Feldman wrote.
And she has a point – this is far from the first time a celebrity has been in the situation where the emperors of high fashion refused to clothe them.
Ahead of July’s premiere of Paul Feig’s female-led “Ghostbusters” reboot, comedian and actress Leslie Jones tweeted the following:
“It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for movie. Hmmm that will change and I remember everything”
Like Graham, Jones isn’t what’s called a “sample size,” which the Hollywood Reporter noted is “a runway model size 4.”
Some claimed her not finding a dress was her fault for procrastinating.
“This is nobody’s fault except Leslie’s,” stylist Jessica Paster told the Hollywood Reporter. “She should have known four to five months ago the date of premiere, and said, ‘I’m not a sample size, I need to go to designers early or buy myself a dress.’ Don’t be blaming designers and saying they don’t like you.”
Mostly, though, she found support online and through “Project Runway ” alum Christian Siriano, who custom-made a sleek red dress with a high thigh-slit for Jones.
Melissa McCarthy, the plus-size comedian known for her roles in “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat” and her sitcom “Mike & Molly,” faced similar problems when seeking a dress for the Emmys, telling the Hollywood Reporter in September 2011 that her only options were “for like a 98-year-old woman or a 14-year-old hooker, and there is nothing in the middle.”
“When I go shopping, most of the time I’m disappointed,” McCarthy said in Redbook in June 2014. “Two Oscars ago, I couldn’t find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or six designers — very high-level ones who make lots of dresses for people — and they all said no.”
Ditto Christina Hendricks of “Mad Men” fame, who told Glamour in 2010, “It is difficult come awards season, and I need to find a gown to walk down the red carpet in, and there are only size zeros and size twos available. Then it becomes downright annoying because all these designers are saying, ‘We love ‘Mad Men,’ we love Christina, but we won’t make her a dress.'”
All of these actresses found designers to create stunning dresses for them, but as The Washington Post noted in 2014, “it takes years and years of success” in Hollywood before designers were willing to accommodate them.
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