This model wants all ‘plus-sized’ ranges to be dropped

[Photo: Instagram/Stefania Ferrario]

When you think about it, the actual term ‘plus-sized’ isn’t exactly the most complimentary. ‘Plus’ - as if these sizes are bigger than ‘normal’.

This is exactly why Australian model Stefania Ferrario wants to drop the term altogether.

Just to be clear here, she doesn’t want larger (e.g. normal) sized clothing to be dropped - just the wording, because the word ‘plus’ implies above average.

She started the hashtag #DropThePlus last year, and is now leading a worldwide campaign to call out the fashion industry’s sizeist language.

Instead of a plus-sized model, for example, Ferrario just wants to be referred to as a model.

She told Broadly that up until the age of 18, she was “convinced that there was only one type of beautiful”:

“And that was a very slim body type: tanned and beautiful. I was obsessed with having that body. If my weight fluctuated or went up, it would really get to me,” she explained.

“My body changed, and I couldn’t change that, so I had to start changing my mindset.

“I had to unlearn what society had taught me. It was about having to reject what had been imprinted on me from such a young age.”

She says its these ideals that language, such as ‘plus-sized’, perpetuates:

“I think certain labels do have a negative impact and it’s easier to completely get rid of a word than to try to change its connotational meaning.”

While some models such as Ashley Graham have stuck with the word ‘plus’ in calls for equal representation, Ferrario says it doesn’t matter what the models themselves think - she thinks the language still maintains damaging beauty ideals.

Ferrario has a point - it’s hard to imagine the word ‘plus’ ever implying anything other than ‘abnormal’ in the fashion world.

What do you think? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.

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