For a fashion brand, it's a pretty big deal for a piece to make a cameo on a magazine cover. You know what's also a pretty big deal? Plus-size model Ashley Graham fronts the January issue of Vogue's British edition — and it's her first Vogue cover ever. However, neither situation is a big enough deal for some designers, who apparently refused to send non-sample sized garments to the publication for Graham's shoot.
In the editor's letter accompanying the issue, British Vogue's editor-in-chief, Alexandra Shulman revealed that the industry's issues with size-inclusivity extend far beyond putting curve models on covers. While Coach was quick to jump on the opportunity to create garments for Graham to wear on the shoot, other houses weren't all that enthusiastic. In fact, various brands "flatly [refused] to lend us their clothes," she recalled in the letter.
"It seems strange to me that while the rest of the world is desperate for fashion to embrace broader definitions of physical beauty, some of our most famous fashion brands appear to be traveling in the opposite — and, in my opinion, unwise — direction," Shulman wrote.
Unfortunately, this isn't a new phenomenon. Just this summer, Leslie Jones went through a similar ordeal, when she couldn't find a designer to dress her for the Ghostbusters premiere. (Christian Siriano came to the rescue that time.) Despite the uproar on social media, not much has changed to make more fashion options available for women of non-sample sizes. Frankly, we probably wouldn't even know about the dearth of options for non-sample-sized celebs without Jones' tweets or Shulman's letter.
The editor didn't specifically call out any of the designers that turned British Vogue down for Graham's cover shoot. But we're certainly curious about which labels remained embarrassingly status quo about sizing.