The Power of Plus

June 6, 2022
Nylon columnist Russo debuts with an illuminating chronicle of the fight to make fashion more inclusive for plus-size people. He begins with Lena Himmelstein opening the first Lane Bryant store in 1904 and covers the formation of the fat acceptance movement in the 1960s through to the age of social media, which created new opportunities for plus-size women to connect with audiences and to find modeling work. The author describes recent episodes in the push for inclusivity, including how Michael Jackson’s death nearly torpedoed the first Full Figured Fashion Week, anti-fat remarks by the chief marketing officer of Victoria’s Secret sparked a backlash against the brand’s unrealistic beauty standards, and a viral open letter to Target led the retailer to carry more plus-size clothing. In roundtable interviews, advocates such as fashion blogger Kellie Brown and models Iskra Lawrence and Yumi Nu tell how they became interested in fashion and discuss their efforts to change the industry. Russo excels at weaving disparate events across the past several decades into a convincing narrative that traces the activism and halting but meaningful progress of the plus-size fashion movement. Fashionistas will be delighted.

July 1, 2022
Although bodies come in a vast array of shapes and sizes, the fashion industry has long prioritized a constricting vision of slim, cisgender, white femininity. It has taken decades of concerted activism by industry bloggers, models, and designers to build a movement that prizes fat beauty. Fashion journalist Russo catalogs the rise of the plus-size fashion industry, relating stories of industry resistance to fat bodies, as well as celebrating milestones like the presence of the first plus-size model on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2016 swimsuit issue. Such triumphs have been hard won by fat-fashion enthusiasts who use the megaphone of the internet to hold brands to account and create a thriving community of support in the face of intense cultural hostility to fatness and fat people. Russo highlights in particular the work of Black women, who have been among the most outspoken advocates for body size diversity while reaping comparatively few of the movement's rewards. Triumphant, unapologetic, and righteously angry, The Power of Plus is a stirring ode to the fat-fashion community.

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