Ashley Graham has been taking the fashion and editorial world by storm this year, breaking boundaries and confinements that plus-size models were once held to. This full figured beauty is all about inclusivity and positivity. Her new swimwear line was created and inspired with real women in mind.
The model graced the cover of the infamous Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition 2016. Ashley took to Instagram to show her fans a sneak peak of her new swimwear collection. The model’s photo shoot took place on a speedboat off the Caribbean island of Curaco—James Bond style—and she looked absolutely flawless!
Behind the Line
This is Graham’s first line of swimwear. The collection includes 11 form flattering swimsuits that exude sexiness, luxury and style. The line is called Ashley Graham x Swimsuits For All.
The model said that her inspiration for the line came from her own frustrations with finding flattering swimwear for her figure. Real women with curves and a little more junk in the trunk love fashion, too! They shouldn’t be limited to the types of swimsuits they can buy.
The model made a guest appearance on Good Morning America recently to promote her new line. She told GMA’s Robin Roberts, “I want the lady to feel like James Bond, not just the lady in the swimming suit. She’s winning life. She’s sexy. She’s also supportive, and she gets to wear sexy bikinis—or a one-piece.” She went on to show viewers how they can find the most flattering style of swimwear for their body type.
Graham and DNCE’s “Toothbrush”
The model has also been in the headlines recently for staring in Joe Jonas’s new band’s (DNCE) steamy, sexy new music video.
DNCE released the video for their hit “Toothbrush,” and recruited the full figured beauty to star as the romantic interest. Ashley’s confidence and demeanor is a great inspiration for plus-sized women.
Graham is a strong promoter of body positivity, and has made a lot of progress encouraging inclusivity for plus-size women in the fashion industry.
Real Bodies Have Curves
Graham has seen great success so far as a plus-size model, but that’s not enough for her; she wants to change history, “My goal is to give a voice to young women, to give a voice to young women who struggle to find someone they can look up to.
For girls who struggle to look inside the mirror and say ‘I love you’. For women who feel uncomfortable expressing their confidence they locked away inside themselves.”
Everyone needs to start listening to what this body activist has to say because she is right. The fashion industry is so far removed from what the real world is like. I haven’t been a size 0 since my freshman year of high school. The standards that the fashion world sets for the rest of us are completely unrealistic.
The majority of women in society are not a size 0, do not have thousands of dollars to spend on couture clothing and do not look like Adriana Lima! So, why is that what we are being fed by the media as what we should aspire to look like?
Who are these high fashion designers and stars of Fashion Week designing clothes for? Well, basically the models and super skinny rich people who can afford them and probably suffer to make themselves skinny enough to wear the clothes.
People have been saying for years that the media, magazines and supermodels set unrealistic standards for the rest of us, but when are we going to start listening?
Women should be supporting brands that design for real women with beautiful curves in mind. We need to stop looking to brands that only sell eetsy-beetsy bikini’s and whose size ‘XLarge’ is more like a size medium in other stores.
What is that? Why do stores do that? Do you want to make your consumers feel worse about their body? Make them feel fat for not fitting into a Large? The fashion industry is so messed up in the way that it attempts to communicate and sell to its consumers.
A True Role Model
We have models like Ashley Graham to thank for being a voice for real women and giving us the options we deserve! The model has been called a “disrupter” in the fashion world, but that is only because critics feel threatened by her influence over female consumers.
Ashley is one of the founding member of ALDA, a collaborative of models in the industry whose goal is to empower women and change the perception of beauty.
The model gives inspirational public speeches at high schools, talking with teens about body image. The work that Graham is doing to change the fashion world and society’s view on women is amazingly commendable.
So many teens struggle with body dysmorphia, anorexia, bulimia, bullying and low self-confidence because of these standards that have been set up in society before us. Positive body image starts at such a young age, and it is so important to spread the confidence and acceptance of all sizes early on in a girl’s life.
Graham stresses the importance of looking beyond the stereotype of the size 0 model and seeing women for who they really are.
She also enforces the responsibility she takes on as a role model for women, “”Growing up, I didn’t have anybody that I could look up to, that looked like me, that was confident, that talked about their curves, their cellulite, their rolls, their back fat, the jiggle in their arms,” Graham said. “I want to be that for young girls. I want to be the women that no one else is talking about, having those ‘flaws’ that society says are flaws.”
Real Women vs Unrealistic Standards
As women, it is important to understand that we do not need to live up to these crazy, unrealistic expectations. We need to learn to accept, if not even love, our flaws and be proud of who we are and what we look like.
Kim Kardashian looks like a flawless porcelain doll with an hourglass figure, but she has a team of five painting on her face and blowing out her hair for three hours before she even steps out to see the light of day.
We are real women. We have jobs, families, significant others and we definitely don’t have three hours to waste playing with our hair. We should not be expected to look like this. We don’t, and we never did. So, when are we going to stop being ashamed of this and start being comfortable in our own skin?
Summertime is approaching and women everywhere are starting their bikini diets and spin cycle classes trying to get in shape, trying to have the perfect body for when they have to put in on display in a bathing suit this summer. We shouldn’t have to suffer, starve and workout like a maniac so that other people think that we look okay in a bikini for the two hours that we are at the beach.
It’s okay to workout, eat healthily and want to look great. There is nothing wrong with that. When it starts to become an unhealthy obsession and an unrealistic expectation, though, then it is a problem. I have friends who crack themselves out on diet pills for four weeks before Memorial Day weekend. They feel horrible, have headaches and are jittery just to lose 7 pounds.
Women need to start looking in the mirror and loving what they see. The majority of women look in the mirror and criticize and pick out flaws to fix. We are never going to be perfect humans. You probably aren’t going to get rid of that little pudge under your belly button, and your thighs are going to have cellulite and that is OKAY.
Start focusing on what’s right about your body, not what’s wrong. Start respecting your body and give it some praise! Look and feel confident this spring and summer. Stop comparing yourself to those women in the magazines and get your sexy self out on the beach! Have some fun and smile because that’s the most beautiful a woman can look.
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