"e fashion industry is notoriously homogenous — at New York Fashion Week in February, more than three-quarters of the models were white. But fashion's diversity problem extends beyond just race. The runways focus on one strict standard of beauty, marginalizing models left and right because of unique characteristics.
But each year, more models break through to represent those who fall outside fashion's provincial standards of beauty. That inclusion, of course, is sometimes motivated by a cynical tokenism, as fashion brands hire a notable "unconventional" model for the brief flash of publicity. Vogue Italia's all-black issue in July 2008, for example, was an attention-getting move that didn't do much to shift the white standard. "It didn't bear fruit," George Brown of RED Model Management said back then.
But the tide is slowly shifting, as the models below prove. The more covers they book and the more ads they star in, the more their beauty won't be dismissed as a novelty but as an agent of change and awareness. From gender identities to waist size, perceived disabilities to rare medical conditions, the traits that distinguish these models tell beautiful stories — and help brands tell theirs.
Meet the models who shattered convention in 2014."
1.Chantelle Brown-Young
2.Shaun Ross
3.Jade Willoughby
4.Erika Linder
5.Ashley Graham
6.Lea T.
7.Andreja Pejic
8.Hari Nef
9.Alex Minsky
10.Jillian Mercado
11.Carmen Dell'Orefice
See explanations and mini bios @ Mic