At this point in her career, Ashley Graham is so well-established and highly respected that she can pretty much say whatever she wants.
And in admirable fashion (no pun intended), she’s using her platform to call attention to the ways in which the industry that made her famous has failed to serve a large segment of the population.
Thankfully, phrases like “plus-sized” have fallen out of common usage among the designers and tastemakers of the modeling world, but they reflect an industry-wide bias that Graham was forced to contend with early in her career.
These days, she’s a multi-hyphenate media juggernaut who just happens to enjoy the title of World’s Sexiest Woman (according to a nationwide poll conducted by Maxim).
Needless to say, Ashley has scored some major victories in the ongoing battle against size bias.
And now, she’s calling out the fashion world for its failure to adapt and reminding the world that she won’t work with designers who fail to cater to every shape.
In a TikTok posted earlier this week, Ashley issued a word of advice to brands who might wish to work with the modeling world’s current reigning queen.
In the clip above, the 35-year-old lip-syncs to a response she gave during a recent interview.
“I like it when designers make clothes my size. That’s what I appreciate,” Ashley said.
“And that’s why I will walk, and I will sit. Especially when they make my size.”
If you were seeking to define the word “clout” as it’s most commonly used in 2023, you could do worse than “the ability to go viral while quoting yourself on TikTok.”
Graham has welcomed three children with husband Justin Earvin, and she’s been open about the challenges she faced while re-entering the notoriously unforgiving world of modeling after becoming a mom.
But in a refreshing change of pace, Ashley’s fitness journey was focused not on her weight but on her overall health and wellness.
And her enduring popularity is a testament to the popularity of her message.
With an Instagram following of nearly 22 million and a burgeoning career as an entertainment news reporter, Graham is poised to follow in the footsteps of Heidi Klum and Chrissy Teigen by becoming more popular as her career enters its third decade.
It’s tough to overstate her impact on the world of fashion, but multi-billion dollar industries are notoriously slow to change.
Sometimes, it takes disruptors like Ashley to show the higher-ups that the old ways are no longer working.
And sometimes, in the process, the disruptors become the higher-ups.
Let’s hope that that’s what the future holds in store for Ashley!
Ashley Graham Blasts Fashion Industry: Start Making Clothes My Size or I’m DONE … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.