Plus-size model slams retailers for using slim mannequins

Should plus-size clothing retailers use mannequins that are the same size as the clothes they sell?

One American plus-sized model says, yes. Alex LaRosa from Los Angeles is speaking out against plus-size clothing retailers who display their sized 14 and up clothes on size 8 mannequins.

"You're telling women, 'You want to look like these models. This is what you should look like, but it's never going to happen,'" she tells Huffington Post.

The 23-year-old works for SWAK Designs, a plus-size retailer, and says that using smaller mannequins is sending a negative message to their customers.

LaRosa believes that the plus-sized community is indirectly telling women they are not beautiful enough and creating unhealthy standards.

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As a size 16 model, she says she has a hard time getting bookings with other clients because she is not a size smaller.

"I am regularly told that I would book a lot more work if I were to get down to size 14," she tells Plus Model Magazine. "In the four years that I have been modeling and as more and more fashion brands companies are selling plus-size clothing, there has definitely been a decrease in the amount of working plus models size 16 and up."

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LaRosa was recently the subject of a poll in the niche magazine where two images of her were posted side-by-side in different dresses and different poses. One photo shows her curves as she sticks out her hip seductively, and the other photo is more subdued with a shall covering up most of her hips and a more serious facial expression.

Readers where asked to chose which image they preferred and the poll was split about 50/50.

Huffington Post suggests that since the pollsters did not favour the more curvy pic, that perhaps the plus-sized community does indeed favour thinness.

What are your thoughts on this debate? Do you agree with that assertion?