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A twenty-three year old Australian model by the name of Robyn Lawley has caused quite a stir amongst the fashion world after recently becoming the first plus size model for Ralph Lauren. The reason for all the commotion is because Ralph Lauren are well-known for Photoshopping the models they use for their campaigns until they are unrecognizable to even their close friends and family. So it has come as quite a shock to many that they have decided to use a 6’2” size twelve model to be the new face of their fashion campaign.

However the issue to be discussed is much bigger and far more complex than a model simply landing a contract with Ralph Lauren. The question at hand is are moves like the one that has just been discussed indicating that we should now expect to see more plus size models in the fashion world? More specifically has Robyn Lawley been the force for this change?

Her dreams of being a model were crushed when she first wanted to become a model. This was because she was told that she needed to diet and was constantly pressured into losing weight.  Models are constantly pressured into altering their eating habits, some are pressured into eating less while others are ushered into rigorous plans based on diet snacks and low calorie meals.  This is a common experience for many models and there have been countless interviews and reports on the gigantic pressure modeling agencies are known to put on their models, in regards to getting thinner. Programmes such as Britain and America's Next Top Model frequently feature wannabe models getting cut for being a certain shape or size that does not fit into the industry standards. There is no hiding the fact that models are traditionally preferred to be skinny in programmes like these. All you need to do is look at the number of models that are recruited that are over a size 8, to reach this conclusion.

But Robyn Lawley seemed to take no notice of this, and went against traditions that have existed in the fashion industry for decades. In fact she stopped pursuing a career in modelling and decided to study instead. During this period she gained a lot more weight. She then came back to the fashion industry after being inspired by seeing some other plus size models to give it another shot - and it worked. Lawley has recently become the new face of lingerie brand, Boux Avenues new campaign. She has also previously been featured in the likes of Vogue Italia and French Elle, which like Ralph Lauren and lots of other fashion magazines are well known to be serial offenders when it comes to Photoshop.

So is she a force for change? The demand of people wanting to see more plus sized models must have been large enough in order for some of the fashion industries kingpins to change their minds and use plus size models. Usually it is only clothing companies that specialise in sizes 10 above that tend to use plus size models.

As well as being the face of various fashion campaigns, Robyn Lawley could be the new face of a breakthrough of plus size models that should be expected to start appearing in the fashion world. The contracts that she has landed have caused a sort of domino effect that can only become bigger. The moves of Ralph Lauren, Vogue and Elle may be reflecting the demand for fashion consumers to see more people like themselves modelling a brands clothes. People want to see models that are happy in their own skin(which Robyn Lawley is) being the face for the brands that they love.

The increased popularity of Robyn Lawley isn’t just coincidence. Moves like these only happen when big changes are on the horizon. We cannot be 100% certain that the fashion industry has changed and plus size models will be featured more. We can only cross our fingers and see how the future turns out.