Here's a short preview of my findings about the model and her crusade...
Saffi Karina towers over her diminutive entourage like a thoroughbred racehorse surrounded by jockeys. Her skin, eyes and hair are the colour of chestnut honey, and she carries off her challenging outfit of a totally sleeveless and semi-backless black silk shirt, teamed with skin-tight jeans, with the aplomb of the professional model. She is unarguably beautiful. And, to civilian eyes, she is also very slim – 5ft 10in and a toned size 12, with finely muscled arms, a neat waist and a perfectly flat stomach.
But to the fashion industry, Saffi’s vital statistics make her a plus-size anomaly. Four years ago, after her then agency told her she was too big and needed to lose weight, she walked away from her modelling career – for good, as she thought. ‘I knew I was healthy,’ she says. ‘I never had an issue with my weight. I exercised and I ate well, so I knew that if I lost weight, I wouldn’t be my natural body shape. I didn’t want to succumb to some fad diet.’
Today, though, her career is flying higher than ever. And her mission is to empower other women to be as accepting of their natural physiques as she is.
We have met because she is the new face (or rather, body) of Boux Avenue lingerie, the company founded by Dragons’ Den entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, which sells pretty underwear for all sizes, from a 30A up to a 40H. Modelling for the campaign, Saffi looks like a 1950s pin-up, her old-fashioned hourglass figure (she’s a 32E, 29, 41) poured into retro-glam silk, satin and lace underwear. ‘I thought it was lovely,’ she tells me. ‘The fit was really nice, it was quite flattering, sexy but comfortable, and affordable too.’
Saffi, 27, is in the vanguard of a new movement in modelling that aims to celebrate the fuller-figured woman as well as her skinnier sister. ‘I think there’s more focus on plus size. It’s more talked about now,’ says Storm’s Paula Karaiskos. ‘As a nation we’re becoming a bit bigger so plus size is fulfilling a need. And brands are looking for personalities. The whole industry has become multi-platform – you need someone who can engage across many levels, who has got something to say and is interesting.’ And any plus-size model has a story to tell. ‘You are the rarity, you are the exception to the rule in the modelling industry,’ says Karaiskos.
Here's a short write up that I read about Saffi's current adventure - Modelling Workshop for Curvy Women.
Saffi Karina has founded Curve Project London, the UK's first plus-size model workshop that will arm young ladies with the tools necessary to make it in the fashion industry at any size. Karina, a former straight-size model, was dropped from her agency six years ago after her body changed and her hips grew.
“As you grow older, you become more womanly and I actually didn’t want to change that, so I started looking for what else was out there," she told the Evening Standard. "I began working as a plus-size model and it is a very positive and happy industry. I still got to do what I loved and travel the world.”
To prepare beginners for the style world, Karina's monthly class will include in-depth mentoring, hair and makeup sessions, experience working with stylists, photo shoots, runway lessons and casting tips. Karina makes quite the instructor -- she's been able to smoothly transition her career while embracing, rather than fighting, her figure, landing campaigns for Debenhams, Speedo, and Bravissimo. Fortunately, she thinks other young women can do the same.
"There is a real thirst for ‘normal’ sized women, especially for commercial brands," the 27-year-old said. "I want to strive to endorse a positive body image and act as a role model to young women who previously thought ‘thin’ was the only way to get a foot over the fashion threshold.”
In light of the changing climate, plus-size models have been speaking up, suggesting larger sample sizes to accomodate non-size zeros and exposing the extreme positioning of straight- and plus-size models (using padding to appear larger is not uncommon). Plus, with efforts like Vogue's Health Initiative and the Equity Model Code Of Conduct, the conversation has been broadened to the fashion industry in general. (Not to mention Dove's pleasantly "real" campaigns.)
For the detailed version of both acticles, you can find it in the link below :
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2488354/Saffis-Curve-power-Meet-plus-sized-model-mission-reshape-fashion-industry.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/saffi-karina-plus-size-model_n_3090957.html
And if you want to know more or interested in Saffi's Curve Project London, you can get the details from the website below :
curveprojectlondon.com
So girls, what do you think? I think it's super amazing to know that such great effort is being done to 'wake up' the fashion world. As I read this, I can feel the fire burning...this is exactly what one of my dreams are ... to be able to create a whole new fashion world here in my home country. Well...let's see what happens...
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