“Lipstick does not have a size.” And the new face of Revlon, Ashley Graham, is absolutely right!
The mega model is one of the first plus-size models to land a major beauty contract in the U.S.,. But Graham has been kicking down doors in the industry for a while as the first curvy model to be featured in Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Swimsuit issue in an ad for SwimsuitsforAll and becoming the cover girl of the iconic issue the year after, not to mention strutting the runway in Paris for H&M, as well as creating her own designs for SwimsuitsforAll, Nordstrom, and even DressBarn. But even with all of that under her belt, the beauty counter has been a rare place to find a plus-size model. In fact, according to The Cut, the last curve model to serve as the face of a beauty brand was Robyn Lawley, who had a two-year contract with Pantene in Australia.
“Historically, curvy girls are not given beauty contacts,” Graham told Women’s Wear Daily. “It’s kind of groundbreaking, because in my generation of models, this hasn’t happened yet. This is one of those moments where I’m over the moon, I cried a little.”
The curvy model not only joins Gal Gadot as part of the brand’s “Live Boldly” campaign, but the campaign also features Graham alongside other runway regulars like Adwoa Aboah (who is also the face of Marc Jacobs‘s new Shameless Youthful Look 24-hr Longwear Foundation that’s hitting shelves in February — mark your calendars!), Imaan Hammam, and Raquel Zimmermann.
“You’ve been slowly seeing [curvy] models pop up in makeup campaigns, but you haven’t heard of any actually signing contracts, and I think it’s because [companies] just want to get their feet wet. It’s like, ‘Hmmm, let’s try this bold curvy thing now and see if it’s real or see if it’s a trend,’” Graham explained to WWD.
I don’t think it’s a trend but rather just another sign of the changing times, as Glamour writer Andrea Cheng recently noted, most diversity in beauty has been focused on skin tones, which kicked into high gear last year thanks to the Fenty Effect and the shockwaves it sent through social media. But within the last six months, there has been a serious uptick in curvy models featured in beauty campaigns, including for retailers like Sephora and Ulta as well as brands like Paloma Elsesser posing for Glossier‘s Body Hero campaign, Marquita Pring appearing in L’Oréal’s True Match campaign, along with Fenty itself, Milk Makeup, MAC Cosmetics, and many others who are taking note of the feedback on everything from products to campaigns from fans directly on Instagram.
And as the industry continues to progress (hey ,we’ve still got a way’s to go), here’s hoping that we get to the point where curvy girls getting featured in campaigns isn’t considered a trend and just becomes the norm.