Although Jean Paul Gaultier featured two plus-size models in his Paris Fashion Week show in 2011, it was not the first time the designer had done so. In October of 2006, Gaultier sent American and Paris-based actress and model, Velvet D' Amour, down the runway of his ready-to-wear presentation titled "Everyone is Beautiful." Many fashion-followers praised Gaultier for embracing diversity on the runway, claiming that by featuring a lingerie-clad, size 20 model in the show, the designer was taking a step in the right direction towards changing cultural attitudes about body type. Others, however, were not so complimentary. Gaultier was criticized for mocking the plus-size industry and for using D'Amour merely as a "pawn in a game of sizist fashion politics." To date, Gaultier does NOT have a plus-sized fashion line, nor does he intend on developing one in the near future. Considering that large-sized women comprise more than 65% of the fashion buyers in the United States, one cannot help but wonder how much profitability high-brow designers such as Gaultier are missing out on by not offering their products to curvier women. |