Next Top Model Gets A Bit More Real

New Zealand's Next Top Model is going “plus size” this year.
By that, the producers mean almost the size of a normal healthy koiwoi sheila. Almost.

Whitney: hardly plus size...

America's Next Top Model 2008 was won by plus-sized Whitney Thompson. She was the first model above a US dress size 4 to win the competition: she says she fluctuates between US 8-10. Converting US into koiwoi sizes, a US 4 = NZ 6; 8 = 10; 10 = 12: hardly what you’d call “plus size”... or even “REAL size”.

"Real" models:
Barbara Brickner,
Danielle Line,
Crystal Renn

In the NZ show, no model bigger than a 10 has ever made it into the finals.
But this year that may change, with the door opened to models sized NZ 12 or more.
The only problem is, of the thousands applying for the show, only five met that criterion. But I understand some of those do make the top 33: they’ll appear in the first episode.
Stats show our average NZ gal wears size 14-16, with the next most-popular dress size 18-20. At size 8-10, these tv wannabees are getting a tad closer but still not a true representation of a majority of NZ women. I think these models should be NZ 12-14, showing how outstanding curvy women actually look.
But we all know designers want clothes horses, not true “real” representations of their customers. They seem slow to grasp that, if they actually catered to the market, there’d be more financial support for their creations.
Women of all shapes and sizes have a right to dress the way they want – not the way the retail industry lets them.