First Plus Size Model in Sports Illustrated

Last week Sports Illustrated got quite the amount of media coverage. Not because it revealed that Hannah Davis was its cover girl – and pulling down her bikini bottoms to boot – but because SwimsuitsforAll had placed the first plus size advertisement in the magazine’s Swimsuit Issue. That’s how you make history in 2015. Ashley Graham is the model in that advert and looks smokin?. For further proof see the campaign video below. (It’s slightly NSFW towards the end?)

Now, it seems that the iconic publication is finally embracing women of all sizes, with recent days seeing the announcement of Robin Lawley as one of the magazine’s rookie models to feature in its hotly anticipated pages. (See above.) Lawley is one of the most exciting up-and-coming models in the business, having covered magazines and fronted many campaigns. She is known for her curves and has coincidentally ?appeared in a calendar for SwimsuitsforAll.

However, Lawley isn’t a fan of the term plus sized, claiming to ?hate? the descriptor. In an interview with Cosmopolitan Australia she said, ?Personally, I hate the term ?plus-size?.It’s ridiculous and derogatory – it puts women down and it puts a label on them. I want to be the swimwear label that fits the best in the world. That’s my goal. Whether we get there, we’ll see.?

While we’d love to see more of a variation in the media with women of all sizes represented in fashion shoots, we have to admit that this is a pretty cool move on the part of Sports Illustrated. Pity it’s only happening now.

Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun