ARGENTINA: Plus sized models hit the catwalk to promote fashions for the fuller figured

Record ID: 197451

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Plus sized models hit the catwalk to promote fashions for the fuller figured
  • Date: 30th September 2011
  • Summary: BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SLENDER MODELS IN SWIMWEAR DURING BUENOS AIRES FASHION SHOW
  • Embargoed: 15th October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina, Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Business,Arts,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA1JNZTKCI1UT1L300Q5VC2BNO9
  • Story Text: Plus sized models hit the catwalk in Argentina on Wednesday (September 28) to promote fashions for the fuller figured in the third XXL: Nobody Measures Your Body fashion show.
    The show, held in the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, was designed to draw attention to the "Sizes Law" which requires clothing stores to stock the full range of clothing sizes at any given time.
    The provincial law was passed in 2006, but authorities say it has been difficult to enforce.
    Official data shows that 95 percent of retailers failed inspections and have been fined.
    The event was in part organized by the president of the lower congressional house of the province of Buenos Aires, Horacio Gonzalez, who said everyone had a right to feel good about themselves when shopping.
    "It has to do with awareness and rights. To have the power to dress, the possibility to have access to garments that fit our bodies without pressure and without discrimination," Gonzalez said.
    When the law was first introduced it only applied to women. This year it has been expanded to include children and men as well.
    "Last year only women were included in this law. This year it [includes] us men who carry a few extra kilos (pounds). We are here to say that we want to get dressed. We want to say to store owners that it is good to have clothes for all of us. And on the other hand, to be able to feel good because going to buy clothes is fun and [should be] free of discrimination," Gonzalez added.
    The event, which featured 70 "ordinary" men and women was a far cry from the glamorous fashion events held throughout the year in trendy Buenos Aires and other fashion capitals including New York, Paris and Milan where designers favour super-skinny models.
    The event organizers say this slender image trickles down through the production line and to store fronts where plus sizes are often difficult to come by, if offered at all.
    The NGO Start Over, which helped put together the fashion show, said not having access to clothing sizes that fit was a form of "social violence".
    Though there has been much debate in public circles about the health risks skinny models take to maintain their slender bodies, the fashion industry has been slow to walk away from extremely skinny models.
    The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders says on its website that social issues such as "a culture that promotes thinness and media that transmits this message" is among the causes of anorexia and other eating disorders.
    A well-known Argentine journalist and former model herself, Tete Coustardt hosted the event and admitted that she too often had difficulty finding clothes that fit.
    "We need to end this model idea that happiness is associated with a skinny body, something that isn't true. And the title of this show is very important because it's "XXL: Nobody Measures Your Body," Coustardt said.
    The Sizes Law has been passed in a number of Argentine provinces and the capital district, but it is not national.
    Supporters hope the law spreads to other provinces and throughout the globe so that one day people of all sizes can shop where they please and find their size in stock and feel good about themselves big, tall, round or small.
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