Like love with a movie star, fantastic, but… one-sided. This is how she lived as a teenager Alexia Kuvel her great love for her fashion. She loved clothes, but clothes didn’t love her equally. A few extra pounds, more weight, a gift from her beloved grandmother doomed this love story. “Fashion stores didn’t have sizes for fat girls, so I often changed into men’s clothes. There were times when I would go into the rehearsal room and burst into tears.” says “K”. It would be nice if she could bend her voluptuous breasts to her teenager and whisper to him: “Everything will be fine, more than fine.”

26-year-old today Alexia, in addition to being one of the most famous plus size models in Greece, also created the country’s first agency exclusively for plus-size models, riding the wave of change in the fashion industry around the world. “We are talking about a 7 billion dollar market. There is no agency in Europe that would not open a department curve, plus size, medium size – that says something. Even on the runways we see plus size models from big houses like Versace, Fendi, Gucci.” How could she have imagined that there would come a time in Ioannina when girls would not struggle to achieve unimaginable industry standards. “Fortunately, at that time I was into skateboarding, so I bought clothes for skateboarding. I remember Tumblr being flooded with “Thinspo” images, i.e. subtle inspiration. It was very difficult for me to accept that I am not like that, that this is not my body. That I am 1.70, with grandma Antonia’s big breasts, more developed and always fat. My mother and siblings were thinner. My mom made me go on diets trying to take care of me, creating a vicious cycle. I thought losing weight would make me feel better when I lost weight, I was happy when I gained it, my mom would see how upset I was and make me go on a diet to be happier. I was chasing happiness that was hidden only in the closet, nowhere else.

How did it start?

Gradually, I saw how much a woman can take control of her body, say: “I have enough, and what I do is cool and in demand.”

However, all these years her love for fashion did not stop. “I had Internet access and I remember visiting stores from Europe. They didn’t exist online shopping then, but whenever I saved money there, I spent it. Modeling, of course, was never part of my plans. At that time, plus-size modeling was just emerging in America.” She was in her second year of high school (communications and media) when a friend asked her if she would be interested in modeling in his parents’ plus size clothing business. “In addition to extra pounds, I also went shopping a little, so I said “okay,” recalls Alexia with a laugh. “I saw it as an opportunity to use what I have to make money. Over time, I realized that this work helps me to accept my body and learn about it. Before that, I had never taken a full-length photo. Even when I took a shower, I tried not to look below the neck. I didn’t realize it at first, but gradually I saw how it inspires a woman to take control of her body, to say, you know what? “I have enough, and what I do is cool and in demand.” . That’s how I felt.” That’s how others felt with her. When she started uploading her first photos to the Internet, Instagram it took off for her. “There were a lot of girls like me who were looking for how to dress and how to feel better in their body.”

When she found her place, she got a job in an agency for two years, later worked as a freelancer and at some point came up with her own business. “My clients asked me where they could find another girl like me, but there were fewer of us.” At the Bodé agency, she represents 12 plus size medium plus size curvy girls and they are all gorgeous. “Because not all girls need the “correct” forms. The fashion industry wants plus size models to have beautiful busts and big hips, which is impossible. There are girls with plump arms, or with breasts but no girth, or with big bellies, or plump calves. For example, I heard the comment “beautiful, but without popo.” The hunt for the perfect plus size.

Response to criticism

The most common criticism he hears is that he promotes it. obesity. “Nothing in common. We encourage everyone to be healthy and be able to dress nicely, feel good, have something to wear to a party, be able to wear cute pajamas at home. Overweight people make up a large percentage of the world’s population and they have to to dress somehow. Of course, it makes money for companies. But even so, a little girl who sees a plus-size model will say: “Hey, a girl like me, I can dress beautifully too. We are not fashionable. We are in fashion.”