Sydney Fashion Festival 2011: Myer’s Big is Beautiful controversial show.

San Francisco Fashion Week 2011: when beauty meets technology.

Australian department store Myer hosted Big is Beautiful fashion launch during Sydney’s Fashion Festival 2011 on Tuesday, hiring plus-size girls to model outfits by various labels.

Sydney Fashion Festival, known as Mercedes-Benz Sydney Fashion Festival (MBFF Sydney), is Sydney’s premier fashion and lifestyle event and is a schedule of fashion events showcasing the contemporary Spring Summer Collections of Australia’s leading designer brands and retailers as these collections land in store.

Sydney’s Fashion Festival 2011 official schedule includes the collection shows and Festival Hub activities, which all take place at the Sydney Town Hall from August 23 to August 27.

Myer’s “Big is Beautiful” show during Sydney’s Fashion Festival 2011 was presented on Tuesday and used plus-size girls to model outfits by various labels, as the Australian department store claimed in a statement:

“Myer is proud to support Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival, Sydney and invites you to join us for our Big Is Beautiful Fashion Launch. The show will feature the very latest trends in plus size fashion for sizes 16 to 24. It’s fashion designed for real women with a fuller figure. For Spring Summer 2011 Myer is excited to be re-launching Big Is Beautiful and introducing Leona + by Leona Edmiston and both brands will feature in the show. This is an event not to be missed!”

Australian department store Myer hosted Big is Beautiful fashion launch during Sydney's Fashion Festival 2011

Robyn Lawley – the first ever plus-size model to feature in Vogue Australia – opened the Meyr’s show at Sydney Fashion Festival 2011 in a stunning black assymetric dress.

But while some girls looked healthy modelling sizes 16 to 24, others appeared somewhat overweight.

Some of the media reports claimed that Myer made a big mistake by adopting the slogan “Big is Beautiful” which is encouraging women to remain unhealthy. This could be classed as almost as harmful as promoting the controversial ‘size zero.’

The Myer’s fashion launch at Sydney Fashion Festival has sparked an online debate as The Australian journalist Damian Woolbough branded the choice of models “irresponsible.”

Robyn Lawley (first in left) the first ever plus-size model to feature in Vogue Australia opened the Myer’s show at Sydney Fashion Festival in a stunning black assymetric dress

The journalist wrote:

“There is a place for women of all sizes in the fashion media, as seen by the positive response to a plus-size shoot with Lawley in this month’s Vogue Australia, but obese models send just as irresponsible a message about the need for healthy eating and exercise as models with protruding clavicles and ribcages.”

However, the journalist’s post received a series of comments from readers defending Myer’s move.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, warned the dangers of seeing skinny models on the runway far outweigh the message that plus-sized girls send, saying:

“Is it ok to be overweight? No.

But if you are big and big boned, people come in all shapes and sizes, it would be monstrously wrong to say the models are just overweight.

If they are running a show which has big girls modelling for big girls, then that would be totally appropriate.

Sending skinny girls down the runway does more damage than you might expect this show to be doing.

If the show Big is Beautiful is for ladies that are size 18 because that is their natural size then I see no problem.”

On the other hand, it seems not everyone bought the idea that big is beautiful.

Only 64 tickets have been sold for Myer’s show, out of the 500 available.

Edwina McCann, Harper’s Bazaar editor told the Sydney Morning Herald:

“I don’t think the consumer is as obsessed with plus-size as the media is.

I think the consumer is quite happy to accept the fact that a model, like an Olympic swimmer, is usually an exceptional beauty and doesn’t look like the rest of us.”