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The Duchess of Windsor , Wallis Simpson once famously said " You can never be too rich, or too thin". It certainly appears that in the modern fashion industry that this is a maxim that many editors and designers live and die by. There is a widely held belief that if your figure does not fit in the highly unusual size zero silhouette , that you do not warrant fashionable clothing, moreover any attempt to change such attitudes is either met with derision or the same tired old argument that "clothes hang better" on a svelter figure.

The fashion world appears to discriminate against bigger women in a number of different ways from the choices of models for advertising campaigns to catwalk shows, the lack of available designer clothing made for women over a size 12 (US 10)and the often disparaging remarks made by designers or editors.

To begin with , to say that there is a dearth of larger models in high profile advertising campaigns is an understatement. Sophie Dahl's controversial turn in advertising the perfume ,"Opium", several years ago , is one of the few instances in recent times when one of the premium fashion houses advertised their goods by using a model with a curvaceous body . Dolce and Gabbana's use of Crystal Renn is the other notable example in contemporary advertising, though both of these examples stand out ,due to their rarity. In the U.K Colleen Rooney, has attempted ( with some success) to persuade certain cosmetics and fashion companies to use "Real Women" in their advertising campaigns. However I did notice when reading a fashion magazine and stumbled upon one of the campaigns in question that the model had been lit in silhouette, so her features were not visible. I wondered whether this same policy would have been adopted if the model had been of the usual generic size.

It is also important to note that many images are air brushed and though it is not only to slim down women to tiny proportions , it appears that this practise happens regularly. Kate Winslet , who by most standards is a slim and healthy woman was publicly incensed by the attempts of a leading men's magazine to both slim and stretch her photographs. She is not alone . Many models have been quoted as saying that they do not look like their photos in magazine. To show such doctored images, does not only discriminate against bigger women , it discriminates against all women.

Though there are very few larger models in advertising and editorials , it seems that it is even rarer

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