Good Morning Britain viewers were left shocked earlier when presenter, Susanna Reid had a fraught on-air conversation with the editor of Vogue UK, Alexandra Schulman.
The host and the fashion mogul were discussing an upcoming issue of Vogue, which Alexandra has decided to dedicate to ‘real women’, opting to ditch the usual models and instead use ladies of all shapes and sizes in the famously glossy pages for the first time in its history.
Alexandra, 58, is the longest serving editor of the magazine, and discussed her desire to represent a wide range of body types in the new issue to reflect what ‘real women’ really look like.
However, the conversation soon escalated as the two women disagreed on the success of the idea, aimed at promoting body positivity.
Susanna, 46, flicked through an issue of the style bible and said: “But these women are still very slim. The average size in the UK is still a size 16.”
Alexandra was quick to retaliate, claiming: “I think you’ll find most of these women … were a 12 or 14, which I think is perfectly representative.”
The editor recently featured in a documentary, Absolutely Fashion: Inside British Vogue, hoping to shed some light on the inner workings of – arguably – the world’s most famous and coveted fashion magazine in the world. In it, viewers saw Alexander lock horns with her US counterpart, Anna Wintour, over who would get Rihanna on the cover.
In the heated debate on Good Morning Britain, Alexandra continued: “We do feature a lot of people who are larger than models in the magazine, but the reality is most models are smaller and sample sizes are made at a particular size.
“There is a shift and there is more diversity coming up. I think we should celebrate whatever size people are.”
Susanna pressed the fashion guru further, arguing: “So your point is you couldn’t get clothes big enough from the designers to put on the actresses? What sort of sizes were you going for?
But Alexandra was adamant that her magazine was embracing and celebrating women of all shapes and sizes.
“It isn’t just to do with sizes,” Alexandra replied, unfazed.
“[It’s] an attempt to show that actually you can put your clothes on people of all sizes, professions, ages and it can look great.”
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