By KATE LEAVER
27-year-old model Myla Dalbesio cried when she found out that she had landed a Calvin Klein campaign. She’s a size 10 in an industry that rarely goes above size 4 – 6, so she never expected to be paid to stand in her underwear.
She dreamed about it, of course. She risked her life to whittle down her body so that casting agents would choose her, she took hardcore drugs and starved herself so that she could fit their clothes and their expectations. She tried to force her body to squeeze into a size 8, at the very least. She did everything she could – because we all know that a woman should try to take up as little space as she can.
But she never really thought it would happen.
In fact, despite working towards it her whole career, Dalbesio is genuinely shocked to have made it into CK’s “Perfect Body” campaign. “It’s kind of confusing because I’m a bigger girl,” she told Elle Magazine. “I’m not the biggest girl on the market but I’m definitely bigger than all the girls [Calvin Klein] has ever worked with, so that is really intimidating.”
A bigger girl. Who describes her availability for work as being on the market. Someone who has wanted success all her life, but because of her size, is in total disbelief when she gets it.
The way she speaks about herself, you might picture Myla Dalbesio as a voluptuous creature; something straight out of a Peter Paul Ruben painting.
No. This is Myla Dalbesio. Posing for Calvin Klein.
Now, since this image has gone public, Myla Dalbesio has been celebrated as a”plus-size” model. Elle Australia have been as generous as to call her “medium-sized”. And maybe, through the eyes of a fashion designer or even a fashion editor, she is. In the sense that she is above the usually-skeletal size high fashion designers usually select.