'I've been in Vogue, I'm signed to the same agency as Kate Moss, but I can't get work because of Mounjaro': Plus size models reveal they're having to get other jobs because fat jabs boom means 'thin is in'

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When Ashley Graham graced the cover of the famed Sport Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2016, it was a landmark moment.

A UK size 16, she was the first plus-sized model to appear in the magazine which was known for championing Barbie-like figures with washboard abs.

The same year Tess Holliday (a UK 26) became one of the most booked models at London Fashion Week and high fashion and high street advertisements alike were filled with different body types.

But fast forward a decade and now it appears 'thin is back in' with plus-size models complaining of work drying up because, they say, the 'gimmick' of bigger bodies is over.

Thinness being back in vogue, she says, is largely down to the surge in use of weight-loss jabs. 

More than 97 per cent of models in recent fashion weeks in London, Milan, Paris and New York, were considered to have 'very small' body types, according to data published in Vogue Business in its size inclusivity report.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, American-born model Carmina Suzanne, who spent five years working in London, said her earnings have 'plummeted'.

She has struggled to pick up gigs and has even found herself working backstage at fashion week rather than on the runway.

'They're just not booking that many plus models, and when they do, it's only the superstars.'

'There are a few plus-size models getting jobs, but they are getting all of them. It's getting harder because the few spots are being given to the cream of the crop.'

Saffi Karina, 39, pictured, has worked as a model for more than a decade and has travelled all over the world. Despite many impressive accolades, including being on the cover of Vogue several times, she too has noticed changes to the industry

Carmina Suzanne attested to the same same struggle. Pictured after winning Outstanding Plus Model of the Year 2023 at the FFIAs The Full Figured Industry Awards in New York 

'I was naïve enough to think 'okay, we're not a gimmick'. Then, I've been shocked that after an eight year run, we are a gimmick,' Carmina said.

She believes that every time the industry tries to appease inclusivity standards, another minority group falls out of fashion.

'The next gimmick is trans models. You're now seeing cis men and trans women walking instead of plus models,' she said.

In October last year, Valentina Sampaio and Alex Consani became the first two transgender models to walk in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, a landmark moment in the fashion space.

Although Carmina believes 'everyone should be represented', she thinks fashion bosses scrabbling to meet social trends has been to the detriment of plus size models.

'There's enough slices of the pie, we shouldn't have to fight over crumbs,' she argued.

Nevertheless, she thinks the push to have more trans inclusivity will be a passing 'gimmick' in the same way plus models were.

Tess Holiday, an American plus size model who works in the UK, and has graced the cover of countless glossy cover, including Cosmopolitan, recently opening up about her struggle to secure work. Pictured at New York Fashion Week in 2020

It's in stark contrast with the life she used to enjoy. 

While working in London during the mid 2010s, the jobs were steady. 

'I had very good success pretty quickly. I did magazine covers, international contracts,' she said, afterwards continuing her modelling career in New York. 

Carmina has moved back to her hometown of Buffalo, New York and now also works as an opera singer.

The biggest contributor to her dwindling work, she believes, is Ozempic. 'Now that you can get thin, there's an expectation that you should.'

'Fashion must be one of the few industries that purposefully ignored 65 per cent of its customer base,' she said. 

'Plus sized people still need to wear clothes and look stylish and fashionable'.

 Saffi Karina, 39, has worked as a model for more than a decade and has travelled all over the world. Despite many impressive accolades, including in Vogue several times, she too has noticed changes to the industry.

Having built her portfolio during the mid 2000s, Saffi is luckier than some of her colleagues, and is still finding work, though, she pointed out, this has reduced in some areas of the industry.

She began her career in her early 20s  as a 'straight' model but ended up quitting when her first ever agency tried to tell her to lose weight.

Later, inspired by a photographer friend, she returned to the industry and was signed by Storm Models in 2012, the same agency that scouted Kate Moss. 

She also spent time living in New York after being signed by IMG, the agency who discovered Ashley Graham three years later.

At the time, there was what Saffi called a 'curve boom', and she found her schedule soon filling up with jobs.

'It was encouraging to see my body type was celebrated,' she told the Daily Mail.

Having built her portfolio during the mid 2000s, the model is luckier than some of her colleagues, and is still finding work, though, she pointed out, this has reduced in some areas of the industry.

'I do have a lot of loyalty in that respect from clients but I have seen the decline as well.'

While she once saw offerings for runway jobs, this has significantly reduced in recent years. 

'The conversation that I keep having with my agent is that high fashion clients just aren't hiring curve girls anymore.'

Paloma Elsesser, pictured, who was the first plus-size model to win Fashion Awards for Model of the Year, also joined the line up this year, having made her debut in 2024

Ashley Graham, pictured, strutted down the runway is a black set and enormous, sequin covered wings, winking at the audience as she reached the end

'It's frustrating because I can do both, I'm a fashion chameleon. I've done Vogue UK, Germany and Italia, but those opportunities just aren't presenting themselves.'

'This is only because I have been doing it for so long and I do have regular clients across Europe,' she added.

'There has been a steady decline in visibility and representation mainstream,' she said. 

'This is a constant conversation I have with bookers.'

'Celebrities making public statements that shrinking one's body is a path to acceptance, that curates this regressive trend in fashion and then it to magazines and the media - it's a domino effect.'

Saffi now believes a brief rise in inclusivity was merely performative. 'It was checking a diversity box rather than a genuine commitment. The trend is now reversing.'

'Many brands have now reverted to what is seen as safest but it's not a real representation of women out there.

'I've seen the curve boom and I've seen the curve decline. Sadly, it's not represented on the catwalk anymore and within major campaigns for the most impressionable brands.'

Speaking on Good Morning Britain last week, she said herself, and other plus size colleagues, are 'not working' at the moment as a result of the slim down on body inclusivity. Tess Holliday pictured in September 2025

     
Last week, Tess  blamed the rise of fat jabs for raising pressure for women to be slim once more.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain , she said herself, and other plus size colleagues, are 'not working' at the moment as a result of the slim down on body inclusivity.  

'I think collectively, our society has moved to a place where thinness is in, body positivity and curvy is no longer popular for a lot of brands, and that's what we're seeing reflected on runways and magazines.'

While weight loss jabs can be 'great', she said, they can be damaging 'when people abuse them'. 

She believes the change first happened in 2020, and has been steadily declining since, a fact she has seen reflected in her own work.

Tess hopes the change wouldn't last, and that much as thinness is now back in vogue, plus size modelling will also have it's time again.

'I think it's great to see all bodies represented on the runway at anytime,' she said. 'We are all deserving of respect and should be able to take up space.'     

Meanwhile, the Victoria's Secret fashion show earlier this month also appeared to display less body diversity than displayed in previous years. 

Gigi Hadid (pictured at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show last week) was among the models who looked very lithe

The new findings come despite many designers adopting looks that naturally create curvy silhouettes, such as corsets.

In some cases, models have been sent out with padding around their hips to create the hourglass shape.

The 'body positive' movement, born in the 2010s, was based on the idea of promoting acceptance of different body types and recognising the damage done by creating a beauty ideal of thinness that was both unhealthy and beyond the reach of most women.

In the same way that fur and flashy fashion is making a comeback, so is the aesthetic of extreme thinness that was called 'heroin chic' in the 1990s when popularised by supermodels such as Kate Moss.

French model casting director Esther Boiteux said: 'There's this false idea that being thin means being chic, being rich.'

Clothes for fashion shows are also typically designed and manufactured in a single size - that of 'standard' size models - and making clothes for regular or larger models requires forethought and extra time to adapt them.

Ekaterina Ozhiganova, a Russian-born model and founder of the Model Law association, which advocates for model rights, says that consumers are in favour of seeing models in different sizes.

'But for it to become truly sustainable, there would need to be a profound change in production,' she said, adding that the industry continued to sell 'an unattainable ideal'.

French designer Jeanne Friot believes fashion runways should instead be a place where everyone can envision themselves.

'The point of a fashion show is to showcase something different from the fashion I grew up with, very thin and very standardized. I want to see (larger) sizes... older people, all ethnicities, all genders,' she added. 

For the moment, sighting a regular-sized woman on the catwalk is an increasingly rare occurrence, but the change is not going unnoticed.

'We have to speak out when fashion messes up and establishes a standard it should abandon,' French fashion journalist Sophie Fontanel wrote on Instagram in early October as she watched the Givenchy show during Paris Fashion Week. 

During New York Fashion Week in 2022, many were outraged at the small number of regular and plus-size frames and as a result. Responding to the criticism, the following year in 2023, the number of plus-size models more than doubled.

It didn't last long, though. Figures have been decreasing ever since, with Glamour writing that in 2024, the average number of plus-size models was just 40 each season.

Of the 4,680 runway looks at New York Fashion Week in 2025, just 46 were considered curve or plus, down from 70 three years prior. Additionally, there was male-plus representation to be seen.

At London Fashion Week this September, there were 53 plus size models, again, a decrease on 2023 when there were 85.

Over in Milan, figures were even lower with only 0.36 per cent of models curve or plus-size. Though, this is not unusual for the Italian city. The only time Milan has ever shown more 15 curve models was when Karoline Vitto was there in 2023 for Dolce and Gabbana. 

And Paris was no better, showing just 30 plus-size models this September, despite there being a whopping 4995 looks on the runways. 

Its a trend that's been seen on the high street as well. In May earlier this year, the fast-fashion brand, Zara, was blasted for using 'unhealthily thin' models.

An advertising watchdog argued the images were irresponsible because the models appeared dangerously underweight.

But the fashion giant defended the listings, saying the models had worked for reputable fashion brands and held medical certificates confirming they were in good health.