I'm amazed that they have a size 20 model. Jean Paul Gaultier used a sized 28 model in his 2006 Paris Fashion Show. Velvet D'Amour made an incredible stir during that time.
Its understandable that noone condones 'fat' modelling. It is just as unhealthy as 'skinny' modelling.
But, after years upon years of seeing the skinny side of things, like Twiggy, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, etc. It is nice to see the opposite end of the spectrum. It's nice to see the media showing a difference for once. It's incredibly refreshing, actually, to see a different body. A different Look.
In time, Hopefully with the clash of the size 20's and the size 0's, the size 10's will be represented soon, but how can they be represented unless they represent the opposite side?
Right now, its a case of extremes. And we should all be thankful for that because it means that a median is coming.

I just think that more clothes need to be out there that flatter all shapes and sizes so people don't go getting a complex over how they look. There will always be fat people. There will always be thin people. People will always base that judgment on THEIR own size, regardless what the designers do/promote/photograph. I just think if there were more cute clothes out there to flatter a range of sizes, women might be a little happier with how they themselves look and a little less mean to other women. I know I could care less if I think I am fatter or thinner than the girl in the elevator next to me if I feel like I look good!

Realgirl said that Americans are 7-10 lbs heavier now than in the 70s--and I understand that this is an average (personally, I'm 90 lbs heavier :( ), but I can remember growing up in the 50s and 60s that fat people were fairly uncommon and fat kids were rare, very rare, and it was almost always a thyroid or similar problem. We ate normal food, balanced, and at least in my house, we did not have bread, dessert or soft drinks with every dinner...those were sometimes treats.
Our food is in the main, no longer natural and filled with chemicals and very few people know how to balance meals. Couple that with total lack of exercise--my g-daughter has never had a gym class since elementary school, where we had to have PE every year in school--and you end up with obese, unhealthy people
While I think people should not be judged solely on their size, I must agree with Jess and a couple of others, obese women are not "curvy." Jane Russell was "curvy." Obesity is not a normal state for the human race, no more so than is being too thin. I think it's great that a designer can have the insight to say, "See, this is beauty, too." Nonetheless, he should have several models, not just one, to represent a range of humanity. Just taking one rock star, regardless of her size, is a publicity cop on his part that I personally find disgusting.
I have just as many issues with "plus-size" models as I do with the concentration-camp-look ones. The skinny models have to starve and drug up to stay that way, the plussers have to overeat to stay that way, or at the very least not achieve optimal health, and both present an unrealistic figure that does not translate to anything I can wear (or could wear even when I was a mere 115 pounds because at 115 lbs I had curves--and yes, at 5'5" 115 is THIN!)
The women who are 12/14s or 14/16s who run and all, I'd be willing to bet your overall bodyfat is not that high, you're just large-bodied--my daughter is a 12/14 at 5'10" and is not fat, runs and eats right and is very healthy
One final note of interest. I'm not exactly sure when it happened, but sometime in the last ten years, they re-numbered all the sizes, so that what was a 10 when I was 20, is now a size 6; a 12 is now a 16, etc.

Uhm, anyone who thinks Beyonce's waist is not cinched in with very good foundation garment is woefully naive.
I think.

Jess,
Stop quoting MeMe Roth...That woman is a complete moron.

Leaving all this hereditary stuff aside, I do find it hypocritical of any designer to use a plus size model when he doesn't actually make plus size clothes. Are the only plus-size women allowed to wear Christopher Kane famous ones? It's interesting.

Alright I just have to jump in here. I saw anonymous's post about why people are overweight. Anonymous doesn't believe it's hereditary. Body size is one of the most genetically inherited traits along with height. The research shows that if you look at identical twns RAISED apart and NOT by their natural parents that their weight will be approximately the same. If one is overweight the other will be as well NO MATTER WHAT THEIR adoptive parents weight is! Environment puts you at the higher or lower end of your genetic weight range. Why do you think people lose weight and then regain it all the time. American diet in a way that fights their genes. Unless you practice dietary deprevation (ie very low calorie) eating forever and ever you are not keeping the weight off.
Americans are 7 to 10 lbs heavier then they were in the 70's. That is the obesity epidemic in a nutshell.
Just who do you think is selling us the obesity empidemic? Drug companies and diet book authors! Even the CDC backed off their study that obesity killed more people than smoking because it was bad science. These people are not objective. So anonymous don't be so dismissive about the fat girls! Don't believe it's laziness or some personal failure that makes all fat people fat.

i dont have any problem with beth's size, her health, or anyone else's body type/lifestyle. i just find it annoying when we are supposed to celebrate a fat girl getting to wear designer clothes. ohh, christopher kane is sooo enlightened, yeah, everyone should make clothes in a size 24!! please, he's doing it for publicity and possibly because he likes her/her sytle. she's doing it for the money/clothes. fashion is surreal. its an art. if you are a healthy size 12 i guarentee you can find any article of clothing you would want. and really skinny girls dont look fabulous in every article of clothing, either do heavier girls. find the clothes that fit you, be proud of your own body type, be healthy and move on.

Anonymous responding to SM: actually, yes, most scientists believe that obesity is at least partially hereditary. As someone who double-majored in Biochemistry and neuroscience and currently works in research at a medical center, I rarely hear anyone solely use the term nurture to describe anything, other than from faux-scientists (ie, most psychologists), and even then they usually recognize the role of nature in most things.

Yeah, and the designer boots to kick his ass with. Peaches and Ana Matronic are funnier anyway.

Ugh, Christ. If that's the best we lesbians can do for a poster child, I need to go ahead and turn in my membership card and start looking for a nice, Jewish finance banker to marry.
(But I get to keep my Jeep Wrangler, right?)

Funny how Beth wrote a song a looong time ago about half of the people on this blog.
*Lesson Learned*
I don't ever want to be that girl
Saddest thing in the whole wide world
I guess I'm lucky cuz I learned a long time ago
I used to try to be somebody else but now I know
People like you make me know that I don't want to be
Stuck in a scene that only puts me down and judges me
So, I don't ever want to be that girl
Saddest thing in the whole wide world
Now you buy the right records
Now you got the right shoes
Yeah, you look so good
But that's all you do!
So worried someone's gonna blow your cover
You got one talking bad about the other
So take care of the people you know
And that's a lesson that I learned along time ago
That I don't ever want to be that girl
Saddest thing in the whole wide world

I know some women who are size 12 or 14, who run marathons, so clearly their size isn't a reflection of their health, it's just the way they are built. That being said, I think it's clear from what Beth herself has said that that isn't the case with her, and she probably is pretty unhealthy.

Actually, if you think about it, Beth Ditto does a LOT of excersize nightly when she's performing - have you ever seen the gossip live? Girl doesn't STOP. EVER.
The gossip rules, Beth is amazing, and it's about time we got some LESBIANS in the fashion industry.
Yay beth!

well personally, i think beth ditto should be contractually obligated to perform in a burlap sack as punishment for being so fat and ugly.
what's wrong with you ladies? there's plenty of pretty to go around. and playing armchair doctor or bashing someone for their good self-esteem is really not becoming. fyi.

Anna and J, I'm in the same club as you. I'm 5'8", train three times a week, and go Zydeco/Cajun dancing whenever I get the chance. My blood numbers are right in the middle of "normal." I am a 14/16/L/XL and curvy, with great legs, if I say so myself. I agree, it is hard sometimes to find clothes, but there are designers who understand our figures and I enthusiastically support them, and have lots of fun finding trends that work for me.
I don't hold anything against skinny girls who have lots more choices, I would only say that if you're skinny because of social pressure, you don't need to be. Fit wins out any day.

anna- totally with you!
I also am a size 16 and my diet consists of fresh fruits, veggies, and soy products. The occasional ice cream cone, but that's about it. I also danced for about 14 years and my shape has always been the same, and I've always been the same proportions. I am not unhealthy at all, nor can I find a cute dress to save my life. I hate that I love specific designers so much, but could never wear their clothes because there's no way they come in my size.

Beth Ditto is NOT sexy.

As someone who is a size 14/16, can run a mile, climb three flights of stairs and just got back an excellent bill of health from my doctor (fantastic cholesterol numbers, low blood sugar, healthy thyroid, etc.), I have to say that a lot of the commenters here are off base. Maybe I'm not in as good of shape as someone who is a size 6 and could run a marathon, but I eat well, do Pilates and aerobics several times a week, and I think it's bullshit that I can't go into a clothing boutique and find anything in my size. Maybe Beth Ditto could lay off the Cheetos a bit, but so could Britney.

half the info in this post is from yesterday's hadley freeman interview w chris kane in the guardian btw, for anyone that wants to read it - http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2114499,00.html - shouldn't you guys reference or link to the original article something?
also, beth ditto simply can't be a size uk 16, since she complained about topshop not fitting her, when topshop does a v generous size 16.

Well... to all the people who say they want to see size 8 women represented, Kelly Clarkson looks like (US) size 8 but everyone ridicules her for being too fat. Her supporters on the Internet are also ridiculed. I have to admit that someone Kelly's (and probably also MY) size does look chunky in photographs. Average people look average in person but fat in pictures. I don't know. I'm ambivalent about this.

It's interesting how when a female celebrity is over size 4, she has to always be "in love with her curves and not give a damn what people think." I've never heard, say, Jack Black talk about how he loves his extra meat on his bones and how he's chubby and proud!
Such a double standard. I do agree that promoting the opposite of unrealistically skinny is not any better; however, I think the solution is to just stop focusing on body shape so much, period! Whenever I hear about how Mischa Barton's "childbearing hips" (ludicrous, because in person her hips are probably STILL more slender than mine, and I wear a size 6) I just think about how Mischa's male peers don't have to endure similar scrutiny.
At the end of the day, Christopher Kane clearly brought on Beth Ditto to shake up the establishment, which he seems to have thoroughly accomplished looking at the sheer number of commenters here!

Last anonymous: Ever seen a female shot put thrower? Or hammer thrower? or weight lifter? Or wrestler?
I can bet many of these female athletes would fall in the size 16-18 range. Are you trying to tell me that they are not healthy, despite practicing their sport every single day of their lives?
Dress size is a very, very poor approximation for health. Unless you know someone's health history, it is poor form to make assumptions about how healthy or unhealthy they are.

SM, Obesity is not hereditary (nor will Relecor, or whatever it's called, help get rid of 'belly fat"). Yes, if your parents are overweight because they don't eat well/exercise, it's likely that you, too, will be overweight because they would have passed along these unhealthy habits to you during childhood. That's not nature (heredity), it's nurture (teaching bad habits). Want to lose weight or maintain a healthy body (which I agree is not possible at size 20), eat less and exercise more to burn more calories than you consume. It's simple math. No magic bullet. No pills needed.
I'm not an advocate of overly fat or overly skinny peeps, but I think to call someone who's a size 16/18 "healthy' is ludicrous - unless that person can run a mile, climb 3 flights of stairs without being winded, etc. Most people who are that large are not in good cardiovascular shape because their heart is working overtime just to carry the extra weight. Sorry, but that's not healthy. (Same goes for anyone size 0, 2, 4...8, 10 - whatever.)

speaking as one's of beth's fellow day girls, can I just say: she's so sexy and sober I almost can't stand it. no, really: http://misshapes.com/club/pages/photodetail.aspx?d=04-14-07&id;=052
all class, all the time.

I meant to add "steps off soapbox" after my rant. It wasnt directed at this board per se, but pretty much liek everyother message board out there. I get annoyed when skinny girls are like "im skinny and people say this and this and this about me." My point wasnt to be one of those girls (PLEASE, dont think I'm one of those girls, perhaps I'm just mad b/c the exact thing was said to me yesterday about my size), it was kind of more along the lines of showing that there is a rather sinister back side to the embrace "curves" stance. It's not necessarily sinister because it degrades skinny women, but more b/c it's just degrading to any woman. Instead of a woman who may be overweight saying "im proud of my body you stick thin waif." I wish they'd say something that isnt based purely on aesthetics. This goes for skinny girls being like "well at least I'm not fat." as well. I just wish the back and forth didn'tmake us seem so shallow. Thick or thin, women are constantly objectified by men (and women) b/c of the way they look. I just wish we were more concerned about our intelligence or our talent.
*steps back off soapbox

"And I'm glad Beth Ditto is out there, as a loud, proud, big ole gay girl."
It's interesting to note that Ditto's last call to arms was against the fashion body bias she blamed on "gay men who work in the fashion industry."
(Source is her NME interview of May 07)

Thank you, last 'anonymous'.... please, stop using the "unhealthy" excuse as a justification for your own bias and body image problems. I'm just glad that there's a woman who's DIFFERENT in the public eye, getting props as a bad-ass rock star!!
Not to get all preachy, but I'm tired of women hating other women based on their looks... ridiculous! We should celebrate all of the differences on a daily basis.
There needs to be more Latinas, Blacks, Asians, biracial people, and... well, people that are not the stereotypical Barbie doll... out there as role models. And I'm glad Beth Ditto is out there, as a loud, proud, big ole gay girl. Work it work it work it!!

Jesus, why do people always assume that saying one body type is beatiful means that all others aren't? And clearly its not about health, because, for most people, being as skinny as many models would be JUST as unhealthy as being fat. People die much more quickly from being anorexic than they do from overeating, after all.
To be clear, I'm not calling models or skinny women anorexic, I recognize that people are naturally skinny just as much as they can be naturally bigger. However, take two average women, tell one to lose 30 lbs and one to gain it, and tell me who you think is healthier. So, don't cover up your distaste for fat chicks by calling it unhealthy, just admit that you don't like people you think are ugly.

i think he just using her cause she's all the rave right now...
how come he doesn't carry sizes 12-28?
ungaro makes clothes for big women ..as does michael kors, issac mizrahi..and a few others..
he's just being a hipster and hopping on who ever is hot..
the day he makes size 12 and above i'll beleive his intentions...
i dotn care that she's fat or thin
and honestly i have no opinion on her it's just hard to beleive he wants a "normal" woman to represent his line...
when he doesn't carry their sizes...
.

beth ditto is fat not because of hereditary... and i quote
"People bitch about fat people who are quote unquote overweight, which is a term that I hate, because it sets a standard for people to be, but it's really funny to me that WE are the majority in this country right now. It's treated like no one in the world is like this, and it's the most shameful thing, but really most of us are fat asses, you know," she told Pop Matters.
"I just like food too much, and I don't want to change. I don't want to look like Britney Spears, I just don't want to. She's hideous."
agreed- but there is no reason for all americans to be "fat asses"

maybe he just thinks she's rad...because she is? who cares if beth ditto is fat, she's a rock star who dresses like one. period.

I find it very interesting that a few people read the post as an attack on their bodies. Fashion paying attention to one larger women doesn't mean that war has been declared on size 2s. Or that next season every women on the catwalk is going to be a size 20 and smaller women won't be able to buy clothes anymore. And at no point did I denigrate thin women; I am a (not self-hating) one myself.
As a number of posters have already pointed out, doctors and scientists debate quite a bit about the relationship between health and weight. Just because someone is smaller or larger than the average women does not necessarily mean they're unhealthy, or that they "gorge themselves on fat and cholesterol".
Whether or not she's healthy, Beth Ditto is talented, sexy, and comfortable in her own skin which is more than a lot of people can say.
In using her as a model, Chris Kane is not saying that being overweight is cool. He's saying that Beth Ditto, who happens to be a larger women, is cool. Whether or not you think there should be women of Beth's size, there -are-, and more power to Chris Kane for making great clothing for at least one of them.

I don't think it's appropriate to make assumptions regarding Beth Ditto's health or eating habits. People tend to forget that obesity- like thinness- is often hereditary. Accusing an overweight individual of gorging on "fat and cholesterol" is both insensitive and uninformed.

Oh, Anonymous. Thank you for making me feel punk rock again. How quickly and easily the pearl of youth returns to me...

the gossip is a terrible band. fashion is about aesthetics, no matter how ethical you'd want to be. christopher kane is lovely, this isn't.

Its crazy how quickly ladies try to find ways to criticize other ladies for their various body issues! I also aparantly totally missed the obese celebrity ladies who are trussed up by the media as "curvy" or "sexy"? My friend and I introduced the term "chexy" in our parlance (chubby sexy) and when trying to explain the term to another (admittedly quite tiny) friend she was like "oh like Scarlet Johanson" and that's when I realized, I had entered... the twilight zone. Its straight up Mean Girls-style Girl World. Everybody just try and keep their body dismorphia in check, love your sistas, and listen to a few Gossip records while you're at it.

I agree that it is absolutely awesome that Christopher Kane is using someone who breaks the mold and is known for her personality more than her shrinking waistline (VB).
This, howvever, brings up an issue that bugs the hell out of me:
That there is no in-between.
I agree with Geneva: what about all the beautiful healthy size 8 women out there???

I find it strange that this post has turned into a forum for self-proclaimed thin girls to talk about how unfairly they are treated.
Good publicity for Kane and Ditto. Kane cements his post as outside fashion. Ditto further cements her post as the go-to big girl for rebellion.

I would argue that, under no circumstance, is a size 20 healthy.
I'm all for designers showing "real women" wearing their clothes, but I want to see healthy women in the fashion industry.
If models are that thin and still healthy, I have no problem with it. Doing copious amounts of drugs, starving themselves or bingeing and purging to get or stay that size is not healthy.
Neither is being obese. Filling your body with fat and cholesterol and taxing your body to that extent isn't healthy, either, and it isn't something we should appluad.
I'm not saying she isn't an awesome person or amazing singer, but let's not look to her as the antidote to malnourished runway models.