We love Marquita Pring, one of the four curvy models who starred in Vogue Italia's now-famous plus-size editorial.
Women's Wear Daily caught up with the native New Yorker, who revealed an odd secret of the trade: padding.
That's right -- the supposedly already oversized models sometimes feel the need to be even bigger. Says Pring, "I'm right in the middle at a sort of small [size] 14, high 12. So I pad sometimes since I've got clients who would prefer a solid 14 or 16."
The process involves laying pieces of foam about an inch and half thick on the hips, securing the padding beneath the undergarments.
It may sound funny (WWD asks Pring incredulously, "Like football pads for your hips?"). But the practice reveals the strange demand for particularly big bodies that fit the plus-size mold, rather than the real bodies -- big or small -- that models already have.
Pring admits, "[Padding]'s better for me because I can still be healthy and work out and have the body I want." As the model has mentioned in the past, "I work harder than some of the smaller girls. We have to maintain our size and be careful not to fluctuate too drastically, especially when we have consistent clients that need us at specific measurements."
And it certainly doesn't help when people generally assume plus-size models are less healthy. When Pring documented her Steven Meisel-shot Vogue Italia shoot for Fashionista, she mentioned this telling tidbit:
Breakfast is all set up. Trays of bacon, eggs, potatoes, breads, fruits, yogurt, Danish, and cheeses cover every surface. My eyes quickly fall on the juicer in the corner and then on all the beautiful vibrant fruit, peeled and everything! We prepare our feasts and head to the chill room with juice in hand.
Bacon, eggs and bread -- what's "real model" kryptonite is apparently plus-size model fare. But what if, like Pring and her fellow models, the girls eschew the carbs for fruit?
There's always padding.
