Is Calvin Klein celebrating 'plus size' women or ordinary sized women?
Credit where credit's due, it's a brave move from one of the world's biggest fashion houses to include a model in their campaign who resembles your average woman, but Calvin Klein is still under fire for allegedly branding Myla Dalbesio's svelte figure as 'plus-size'.
Calvin Klein under fire for 'plus size' model campaign
The healthy-bodied women of the world are rising against the term 'plus-size'; a word used by the fashion industry to describe anyone who dares eat three whole meals a day - and a word used by everyone else to describe a figure of the curvier variety. Myla Dalbesio, who recently featured in a Calvin Klein underwear campaign, is a US size 10 (that's a UK size 14) which is generally thought of as a significantly more voluptuous frame than your average size 2 model, but nonetheless represents a large proportion of Western women's bodies.
More: Target got caught up in a 'plus-size' scandal in 2013
Dalbesio certainly didn't help the debate, revealing to Elle: 'It's kind of confusing because I'm a bigger girl.' She's clearly not, of course, though she does also point out that she does stand out amongst previous Calvin Klein models. The issue was probably more likely raised by the fact that she appeared to go on to refer to herself as plus-size, but she recently attempted to clear things up with a later statement.
"True body diversity doesn't mean only sizes 0's and 2's " http://t.co/opkcsj8r31 pic.twitter.com/mtFLx4fupH
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) November 12, 2014
'I have finally found my place, right in the middle. Neither plus, nor straight size, I love that I can be recognized for what I am, a healthy size 10', she said, while representatives at the Calvin Klein house insisted: 'The Perfectly Fit line was created to celebrate and cater to the needs of different women, and these images are intended to communicate that our new line is more inclusive and available in several silhouettes in an extensive range of sizes.'
So there you go. Myla is just regular size. So can we now stop using the term 'plus-size'?