Bigger Models Wanted by River Island

Stella, The Sunday Telegraph’s magazine has joined forces with ICM model agency and high-street retailer River Island  to launch a new model search aimed at ‘normal’ sized women. The competition is to find a size 12 to 16 model to represent the average UK woman- "a girl who looks – and thinks – bigger than the typical model". The description is pretty patronising, but the idea definitely has merit. With so much media focus on the skinniness of catwalk models, it’s good to see someone putting a positive spin on the issue rather than simply joining in the bemoaning.

According to Stella magazine, Ellis, the director of scouting at ICM, observes: "The average woman in
this country is a size 16, therefore it is about time that we, as an
agency, reflected this. We would love to find a beautiful, sexy,
confident young woman to represent us through this competition". However, unlike other model searches that offer prizes of agency contracts, cover shoots and advertising deals, the winner of this contest will only be offered ‘an introduction to ICM, the chance to appear in a River Island fashion shoot, and £1,000 of River Island clothes’. Is it just me or does the whole thing smack of a publicity stunt rather than a serious attempt to promote healthy body shapes?

find out more about the competition here