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PLUS Model Magazine And SWAK Designs Featured On WWMT Newschannel 3

PLUS Model Magazine And SWAK Designs Featured On WWMT Newschannel 3

This morning, WWMT Newschannel 3 in Kalamazoo, MI featured PLUS Model Magazine and SWAK Designs in a trending top story discussing the photo experiment we conducted recently.

WMMT screen shot 1-8-14

The story focused on an image that was posted on SWAK Design‘s Facebook page, where fans of the page were asked to vote between two model shots that were being considered for a future ad in a PLUS Model Magazine issue. We naturally assumed that Pic A would win hands down because plus model Alex LaRosa is showing off her curves in such a confident, bold manner. Surprisingly, the vote was 50/50 and many expressed passionate opinions about the curvy post in Pic A, some negative.

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This led us to write about this in our current issue and follow up with a PMM Sound Off article here on the blog last Saturday, where we asked our readers:

SWAK ad - too curvy - main pic

With media outlets such as Huffington Post, Refinery29 and now WMMT Newschannel 3 covering this story, we are extremely happy that this continues to be talked about. It points to a larger and more controversial topic within the industry that we tackle in our latest issue…

What is plus size?

Are plus models disappearing?

Where is the size diversity in the industry?

As we wrote yesterday, major retailers like Target and Party City, are hesitant to use plus size models and will resort to other practices like using maternity models and manipulating images to make standard sized models look wider. Other retailers will pad thinner models to make them look larger or will just use smaller models to market plus size clothing.

Editor-in-Chief Madeline Jones talks to this alarming trend in the industry in her editor’s letter in this month’s issue of PLUS Model Magazine and issues a Call to Action to retailers and consumers. While we are asking retailers to use larger models to properly market plus size clothing to their customers, we are also an advocate for size diversity in the industry. We want ALL sizes represented in the industry.

We want to know what you think. Please leave us a comment below and let us know. If we want changes to be made in this industry, we have to continue talking about this important topic and be heard.

To view the video of the WWMT on-air segment featuring PLUS Model Magazine and SWAK Designs, click here.