Isabella Moore features in Cutting the Curve and says plus-size models like her are getting paid less because the general public wants to be skinny. Photo / Julie Zhu
Growing up, plus-size model Isabella Moore never saw girls like herself in the media or in advertising photos. The message was very much, thin equals a better quality of life, she says.
Moore features in a docuseries, Cutting the Curve, that explores the backlash against body diversity in fashion. Once sought-after, plus-size models now struggle to find work. Some 0.63% of models walking the runways in major fashion weeks this year during the autumn/winter 2025 shows in London, Milan, New York and Paris were classified as plus-sized (NZ size 14+). And only 2% of mid-sized (NZ size 12-14) models were represented.
These are numbers that make Julia Parnell sigh loudly. She is the director and producer of Cutting the Curve, which drops on RNZ from August 25. The six 10-minute episodes tackle the fashion industry’s pendulum swing from greater size inclusivity to skinny fashion and even skinnier models.
Fuelled by the rise in GLP-1 weight loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, which was recently licensed for use in New Zealand, rapidly shrinking customers are prompting some designers to quietly axe dedicated curvy collections, larger sizes and the use of plus-sized models.
“A few decades ago, you’d think only skinny, white people wore fashionable clothes because those were the only models we saw,” says Parnell. “Eventually, thankfully, manufacturers realised that all sizes need to feel good about themselves.”
It was, admits co-producer Evelyn Ebrey, like taking off your bra after a long day at work.
“It was such a relief to see people who looked like us on catwalks and in ad campaigns – a much broader, more genuine representation of the previous narrow ideal of beauty,” says Ebrey, a fashion journalist who championed size inclusivity long before it was a hashtag.
It was an exciting time, she recalls, with models such as Ashley Graham walking major runways (the American became the first high-fashion model with clothing tags bearing the numbers 14 and 16).
“Models of different sizes and ethnicities were shown celebrating what makes them unique rather than just blindly following trends and trying to shrink themselves to be as skinny as possible.”
Who could forget, for example, Dove’s “real beauty” campaign of the early noughties, featuring plus-sized models in their underwear with the tag-line, “as tested on real curves”? Or Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty lingerie brand, an ad campaign that combined real women talking about their bodies against a backdrop of high fashion.
Ebrey has skin in this fraught game: as a plus-size woman, the move towards size inclusivity meant “for the first time I didn’t feel overlooked and forgotten by the fashion industry”, she says.
“I could go into a designer store and find something that fit.”
But when the much-vaunted weight-loss drugs hit the market, the appetite for larger sizes and curvy models began to wane.
Parnell says: “It’s so frustrating because it felt like the fashion industry was finally making progress, particularly for Māori, Pasifika and women of colour, it was like change had arrived. Then you get Kim Kardashian turning up at the Met Gala having lost 16lb (7.2kg) in three weeks to fit into a Marilyn Monroe dress. And public figures like Oprah who lost a lot of weight quickly.”
Where the celebrities go, so do the rest of us.
“We were in New York filming Cutting the Curve earlier this year and it’s really noticeable on the streets there,” says Parnell. “Apparently one in three people in Manhattan is on Ozempic.”
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, the phrases “heroin chic” and “thin is in” would probably have been served up to you, leaving no doubt that the 90s Kate Moss-style of super skinny is back.
But Cutting the Curve had its genesis in 2022 with an article Ebrey wrote for FashionNZ. She later shared it with Parnell, who she’d met at film school in the late 90s. The idea of a docuseries chimed with the latter, who’d cut her teeth on music documentaries for bands such as The Chills and Six60.
“This project interested me because of what the backsliding in using plus-size models means for young women who will no longer see themselves represented in catwalks, magazines or billboards,” says Parnell. “But also because of what it means for the models themselves – the rejection and resilience it takes to be able to keep showing up for work when your body is no longer fashionable.”
At the centre of the series is Moore, a 34-year-old Samoan New Zealander who trained as an opera singer and has performed for the royal family. For the past five years she has paid the rent on her London apartment with modelling work. Her flawless skin and lustrous hair have helped sell everything from lingerie and cars to honey.
Moore, the granddaughter of poet and writer Albert Wendt, has faced the fashion industry’s demons, a struggle that took its toll.
“Like so many other women, I’ve been programmed to think that being fat is the worst thing you could possibly be,” says Moore from the Bromley flat she shares with husband, fellow Kiwi Samoan opera singer Benson Wilson.
“I always felt like I was too much or took up too much space and that my value rested solely on how I looked.”
No surprise then that Moore had little time for the fashion industry.
“I thought it was irrelevant to girls who looked like me, so I didn’t invest any time or energy in it.”
So when Moore, who trained as an opera singer in Cardiff and San Francisco, was pursued through St Lukes Mall in Auckland by a modelling agent in 2014, she was perplexed.
“I didn’t think the agent was dodgy but I was shocked that someone wanted me to model because I’d never thought of myself or my body in that way before.”
The modelling agent was, in fact, legit and within weeks Moore was able to call herself a plus-size or curve model.
“At the time Ashley Graham was making a splash and things were opening up. Although it always felt a little like box-ticking – we’ve got a brown model, a black model, an Asian model – I honestly thought that if the trend continued, it would stop being tokenistic and different types of beauty would become the norm.”
The job offers kept rolling in and by 2019 Moore was able to transition to fulltime modelling.
Naturally humble, Moore isn’t as keen to name-drop. When pushed, she mentions she’s modelled for brands such as H&M, River Island, Karen Millen and lingerie company Gossard, walked the runway of London Fashion Week, graced the pages of Glamour Magazine and been photographed in Italy, Sweden, Germany and the US.
But then Ozempic appeared and the phone stopped ringing.
“It’s definitely harder to book work now and we’re also getting paid less because the general public wants to be skinny and when that happens, brands shift further away from using curve models.”
While Moore is currently able to keep the lights on with modelling work, she says her side hustle of opera singing is becoming more important.
“The message used to be that you can be whatever size you are and be happy but as soon as people had an option to take these drugs, they did. And I can understand it but now we’re back to this idea that skinny is better.”
Has Moore been tempted by Ozempic?
“At the end of 2023, when I wasn’t booking many jobs, I thought, do I need to lose weight? But my body’s too precious to do that. I’ve also heard that it’s a quick fix and once you go off it, you put the weight back on.”
There’s a heartbreaking scene in Cutting the Curve where Moore watches a clip of this year’s London Fashion Week and laments the fact she isn’t there.
“Why can’t we celebrate all types of beauty? It feels like fat phobia is back and it’s no longer acceptable to live in a fat body.”
Which begs the question, why would Moore put herself through the indignity of casting calls alongside stick-thin models, of attending auditions where, as depicted in Cutting the Curve, she can’t fit into the jeans she’s asked to model?
“When my opera career didn’t quite go as I hoped, I needed a job. As hard as modelling is, there are aspects of it I love, such as the creativity, the people and the chance to travel and have cool, fun experiences that I never would have had otherwise,” she says.
“But I do find it shallow sometimes and don’t understand why the industry can’t embrace different types of beauty. I don’t put value on someone’s worth based on their size so why does the fashion industry?”
It’s not all grim though: earlier this year Moore spent three months in New York where she was signed by an agent. That translated into gigs with Macy’s and the hair company Tresemme.
And the day before our interview, Moore beat out two others to be named NZ Model of the Year by FQ Magazine.
But she’s still got a massive fight on her hands for plus-sized women to be recognised.
“We need to keep creating our own opportunities and spaces that are inclusive and accepting of different types of beauty. I want to remind women in bigger bodies, and Pasifika women, that you aren’t the problem; it’s the fashion industry that’s the problem. And you shouldn’t have to change to be worthy of being seen.”
For those in the fashion industry, Moore also has a message.
“Not everyone can, or wants to, take weight-loss drugs. And even those who do don’t magically become a size zero. The plus-size population isn’t disappearing any time soon.”
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) medications mimic the effects of the natural hormone GLP-1, which plays a role in regulating blood sugar and appetite. Primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes, the weekly injections have more recently been in the spotlight for their potential in weight management.
They include Ozempic and Wegovy, and are said to reduce appetite, increase feelings of fullness and support effective weight loss when combined with a healthy diet and exercise. The prescription-only medications can help patients lose up to 15% of their body weight.