Canadian duo, Giovanna Morales and James Earl O’Brien began their journey more than a year ago delving into the world of “plus-size” modelling to document the sizest ideals that are commonplace within the fashion industry and the effect that this “discrimination” – as they describe it – has on women everywhere.
While on the Australian leg of shooting – a production that has taken them to four continents, more than 14 countries and resulted in more than 300 hours of film – the documentary makers stopped by The Weekly’s offices to give us some insight into their highly anticipated project, inspired by the story of ovarian cancer survivor and size-14 model, Elly Mayday.
“I was following her through her Facebook page and I dunno, I just got really inspired by her because I thought she was just really beautiful and it seems so refreshing to me to see those images of her,” said the film’s director Giovanna of Elly Mayday.
“I wasn’t familiar with the plus community at all and through her I started discovering more and more and I thought that it was fascinating.”
Elly Mayday featured in The Weekly’s July 2014 issue.
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It wasn’t long after being introduced to the niche Canadian plus-size community via social media that Giovanna began thinking there might be a story to tell and that’s when she approached her old film school buddy and the film’s executive producer, James with an idea to make a movie about curvy models trying to crack into mainstream fashion.
“The idea started really small, like just planned to stay in Vancouver,” says Giovanna of the project’s humble beginnings.
“But people started liking it and liking it on social media and everyone was like telling us, ‘You guys have to go to Toronto,’ or ‘You guys have to go to New York,’ and from there it was just growing and growing.”
Eventually the filmmakers couldn’t fight the torrent of demand to branch out to the global curvy community and began profiling the careers of three prominent full-figured models; Elly Mayday, Kerosene Deluxe and Australia’s own Laura Wells.
“The film is about the bigger picture, which is diversity and these are great examples of women who are bigger than what you see in the mainstream,” explains James.
“They put themselves out there and they get criticism and they can deal with it, I mean they do deal with it and they become role models for other women.”
While Elly, Kerosene and Laura are hardly household names, in the world of modelling they have a heavy presence, with social media stats placing them with a combined reach of just under half a million followers on Facebook and Instagram alone (484,695 at the time of publishing).
According to Giovanna and James the curvy keyboard warriors, made up of mostly women, have been instrumental in pushing brands, stores, designers and the media for more inclusive attitudes toward women who wear clothing over a size six.
“Social media is the biggest platform for this community to achieve their goals,” explains Giovanna.
“They [bloggers] are the ones who started speaking and saying, ‘What about us? We need to have some representation,’ and the movement has grown from that and now the mainstream has picked it up but because of the voices in that plus-size community they’re the ones say, ‘we need to make this happen.'”
Brands like ASOS, Forever 21 and Topshop are among some of the most recognised mainstream brands who have bowed to public demand and evolved their offerings to cater to bigger customers.
James says this shift in the market – however slight – would never have happened without the vocal bloggers on the internet, some of whom have been interviewed for his film, and whom he calls the “superstars of the plus-size community”.
“They [bloggers] bring everything together and through their advocacy they become models themselves,” explains James. “They put on the clothes, they show them off and then they become the models for the women out there who don’t see themselves in the mainstream media so they create their own media through social media.”
But there’s stil a way to go when it comes to big business and the media changing their views on body size.
In the trailer for A Perfect 14, Daniella Sieukaran, body image researcher at Simon Fraser University, suggests that size-based segregation is rife, saying “Weightism is pretty much the last acceptable version of discrimination,” while another commentator discusses the harsh realities of the fashion industry: “Bottom line is it’s a business. And guess what we’re buying? We’re buying the Caucasian skinny girl.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone would think a film pushing for an end to “weightism” to be a negative thing, especially when even Vogue Italia cites the project as “highly anticipated,” but producer James says there has been some flack.
“The criticisms we get is the same kind of stuff that the plus size models are getting like, ‘Oh you’re promoting bad health,'” says James, referring to suggestions that plus-modelling championing obesity.
But the documentary-makers say that they consider size diversity and obesity as total separate issues and are keen to address them both in the film.
Ultimately Giovanna and James say they just want to open people’s minds up to the concept that beauty isn’t a one size fits all.
James says society would benefit more from fashion if it was a more honest reflection of the world around it, not an elitist enclave with mission to make those on the outside feel less worthy.
“Everybody should have to be allowed to look nice,” James insists. “Everybody should be able to look nice and dress well and feel good about themselves and not made to feel like, ‘You can’t have access to nice clothing until you are a certain size.’ No, it shouldn’t be that way.”
