EDITION: U.S.
 
CONNECT    

Leona Palmer
GET UPDATES FROM Leona Palmer
 
Leona Palmer is both a native of Wisconsin and a time-tested New Yorker. After having received her bachelor's degree from New York University in Literature and Creative Writing, she was discovered on the sidewalk and offered a modeling contract.

Leona has been modeling professionally for six years and is currently represented by Wilhelmina Models. She has landed the most coveted modeling jobs in the industry. Among the most notable are posing for the cover of VeinteiTantos magazine and the national Playtex campaign including television commercials. She regularly models for Nordstrom, Macy's, Bloomingdales, Kohls and various international department stores.

She is a regularly featured contributor to Madisonplus.com, a news and fashion blog. She is also currently working on her first novel.

Inhabiting both the fashionable and the intellectual, she offers her unique cultural perspective and criticism as both Wilhelmina model and writer.

Follow her on Facebook.

Blog Entries by Leona Palmer

Naked: Plus Models in Magazines

Posted November 15, 2011 | 15:24:00 (EST)

In the last four years, especially since Lizzie Miller's belly shot in Glamour of 2009, and V mag's "Curves Ahead" story in early 2010 there has been a steady growth of editorial opportunities for plus models. The consumer demand is finally tipping the scales in favor...

Read Post

Celebrity Fit: Hollywood Skinny and Sample Sizes

Posted October 19, 2011 | 14:14:41 (EST)

The direct implications of the fashion industries standard sample size in our culture, a 0 for runway and a 4-6 for catalog, extend to more than just models and magazine editorials.

As celebrities have replaced fashion models on the covers of magazines and in advertising campaigns, and editors in the...

Read Post

Sample Size Me: Money, Culture and Size in Fashion

Posted September 8, 2011 | 11:21:00 (EST)

It's NYC fashion week once again. Lanky runway models flood the trains, a stopover on their rounds between Paris, London, and Milan. Tonight, Fashion's Night Out whips the retail outlets into a frenzy during which women of all sizes will be out in droves spending on fall looks. A perfect...

Read Post

The Long Run: Plus Models Run for Charity

Posted October 7, 2010 | 14:14:46 (EST)

Ladies and Gentlemen: I have just completed my first straight-up, uninterrupted 20-minute run, including a warm-up and cool down, I did 4 out of 5k. I have until November 20th, to run the full 5.

I am in no way a natural runner. If there had been a Least Likely...

Read Post

Big Girls, Real Food: Beauty, Health, and the American Diet

Posted June 23, 2010 | 00:04:43 (EST)

What do Julia Roberts, Jamie Oliver, Full Figure Fashion Week, and my grandmother have in common? Dinner.

In a recent post I described the death of the supermodel. It seems that her death was followed almost immediately by the deaths of the middle class and the middle bodied--tied together...

Read Post

"Plus"

Posted May 14, 2010 | 10:39:08 (EST)

The first thing my friend asked me when she saw Glamour Magazine's June cover was, "Which one is the plus model?" When I pointed out Crystal Renn on the left she said, "But if those girls are skinny models what is she, like, size 8?"

Read Post

Modeling Today: Fat vs. Skinny

Posted April 27, 2010 | 08:46:31 (EST)

Curvy assets in mainstream media have just set off another round of debate and controversy. Plus models, skinny models: what happened to just straight up models who are beautiful? We long for the golden days of the Supermodel. I grew up with Cindy, Christy (Turlington and Brinkley), Naomi, Linda and...

Read Post

The Plus-Sized Life

Posted November 20, 2007 | 07:02:16 (EST)

2007-11-20-leona3.jpg


I grew up in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, a place of corn, cows, and blonde, blonde cheerleaders. As a teenager I never fit in. Not just in my small town, but in the world. The life I wanted seemed so far...

Read Post