EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
” Robyn Lawley: bringing sexy back “
 |
| Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia June 2011 |
ROBYN LAWLEY
@ WILHELMINA NY @ BELLA MODEL MGMT (MA) @ OKAY MODELS GERMANY
 |
| Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia June 2011 |
PR: The first thing we thought after seeing the Vogue Italia cover is that we want to work on our curves, and than we had a „regret free“ cookie!
ROBYN LAWLEY: I love cookies! Especially making them!
PR: You Like baking??! Tell us what are your favorite cookies?
ROBYN LAWLEY: I LOVE BAKING! I make a mean double choc chip cookie – the kind that you make and you turn around and they are all gone. I have the recipe written down in my diary.
PR: Hahaha. Will get to that later. So Robyn, do you feel you contributed to making thousands of people feel better about themselves?
ROBYN LAWLEY: I think it always help when you see a person love themselves just as themselves, flaws and all, when you see someone who is comfortable in their skin it makes you realize there are more important things in life and if they happy with themselves why can’t I be.
PR: We don’t love the cover– WE ADORE IT! Can’t believe how magazines can influence the perception of beauty. We are all too obsessed with self image!
ROBYN LAWLEY: Magazines always have been projecting perceptions of beauty, and you are right we are obsessed with self image and what we see constantly in magazines will resonate with us, that’s why it’s so important for ALL magazines to be diversified with size, race and age.
PR: How did you start modeling anyway?
ROBYN LAWLEY: I started at 16. I did go to see an agency at 15 and they said YES. But I had zero confidence and backed out of it. I always just assumed I could not do it because I was not skinny and all, the models at that moment were like Gemma Ward. I have always been a realist and I would just tell myself not to get hopes up on it: I may be good at it but I’m not what they are after.
PR: Did you diet then?
ROBYN LAWLEY: I did do all the dieting bullshit for a year and slimmed down dramatically but of course the weight kept creeping back because my body knows what size I’m meant to be.
 |
| Source: Vogue.it |
PR: Do your agencies promote you as a plus size model?
 |
| Australian Cosmopolitan Magazine |
ROBYN LAWLEY: I have been marketed as ‘plus size’ so far and yes, it can be tough as a plus size model because we are faced with huge prejudice, we can sometimes be seen only as a gimmick someone to please the masses but not stick around.
Saying that, it has changed dramatically for me after the last couple of shoots.
I am on two boards with my USA agency now the curve board and image and I’ve been told this next show season I’ll be sent around to everywhere as a model no “plus size” included.
PR: Who do you think is responsible for the popularity of plus size girls? We want to send them flowers and a “thank you!” note!
ROBYN LAWLEY: I think there have been a few people who have been passionate about promoting healthy models in fashion, my mother agent Chelsea at Bella models is almost obsessive about it haha.
 |
| Australian Cosmopolitan Magazine |
PR: This cover didn’t just happen to you out of nowhere. How long have you been working?
ROBYN LAWLEY: Ha-ha, no it’s been a long road.
I modeled straight size for a year then took a 2 year break then went into plus size at 19.
I really had to relearn how to move my body and accept its size.
I now have such fun modeling and it’s because I have such a good relationship with my body. That confidence gives you power and hopefully I empower women out there in turn.
PR: Vogue Italia is very progressive and pushing the boundaries in fashion. Do you think that their influence will make other magazines, and media in general, push the new trends even further?
ROBYN LAWLEY: For sure, it always takes the big guns to influence the rest I feel. Everyone is too scared sometimes to stray away from the norm. I also won’t quit anytime soon and hopefully I will get a chance to push the boundaries even further and get our size 16 bums out there, because in the end we are good models, why not include us?
PR: You have agencies all over the world, so who is more critical of weight – Americans or Europeans? On one side we have Vogue Italia with the new curvy cover, and then just across the border, extremely thin girls walking the catwalks of Paris. Do you think that Europe is divided on the issue?
 |
| Cosmopolitan magazine Australia |
ROBYN LAWLEY: I think America is actually more behind. Americans are beyond obsessed with weight and it kills me to hear someone counting calories. If you are not skinny in America, you are free pickings for all kinds of humiliating insults.
I have lived in both France and now America and the relationship majority of people have with food in France is as you’ve guessed, completely different than in America.
Saying that, the Paris catwalks are notorious for only using very skinny girls and some models will only do Paris because they look so extreme. I don’t get it, in the end all women I admire are just healthy looking.
I think heroin chic is dumb. Why is looking like a heroin addict cool on any level?!? Saying that, though I love that kind of “I don’t give a f**k” fashion look that comes with it, I usually dress more like Joan Jett and I’m not skinny – but hey – it still looks good if you have the confidence to pull it off.PR: Let’s break some stereotypical plus size prejudice. Plus size models don’t over eat, do they? In fact, maintaining a beautiful curvy body probably means having a very carefully planned eating habits?
 |
| Facebook fan page |
ROBYN LAWLEY: I eat when I want and what I want. Saying that, though I am lucky that I love and prefer healthy food because of taste and that I am in tune with my body; I eat when I’m hungry and finish just before I’m full. Basically I eat normally. LOL.
It’s taken a long time to get rid of that guilt feeling when I do eat. I do not binge eat or eat in secret, in fact I adore food.
I think it’s the best pleasure in life. I wanted to be a chef my whole life so I am very Nigella Lawson in the kitchen and I will always refuse to give up that beautiful passion just so I can look like a stick insect and fit the mould.
PR: When you think about it, it’s all about respecting the natural proportion of your own body. Do you have to be careful about measurements as well?
ROBYN LAWLEY: Yes it really is, proportion is everything. You can determine a lot more about someone’s health on measurements than scales or BMI.
I’m lucky with my measurements that they fit perfectly in with majority of plus size clients.
But same as the skinny world we can get told to “put on some more weight”. It has never happened to me personally and if it did I would just say no, but some of my friends who are just beyond beautiful are losing clients because they have lost a bit of weight or the client wants bigger.
 |
| Robyn for H&M |
What I really want to happen is for us to model for the middle ground as well as plus size; I strongly believe that no matter what size you are, you can still dress beautifully.
PR: Do tell, because the cover of Vogue Italia caused some drama with the food on the table in front of you girls… the pasta plates, do they feed you better on set then the sup