Myla Dalbesio is in a weird double bind in the modeling industry. Neither straight-size nor plus-size, the 27-year-old face of Calvin Klein lingerie is a size 10 — like thousands of other women — but a rara avis in the modeling world, which tends to place models at one of those two poles. Today, in a story and shoot for Yahoo Style, she talks about her life as an “in-between” model — which includes everything from carrying padding to help her fit into plus-size clothes for jobs to worrying about going to the gym too much to still fit into her size category. Says the model,
“It has been hard. I can never figure out where I fit in, and I’m always making someone mad. I’m not skinny-skinny, but I’m not fat and fabulous either. I’m a size 10. There’s been a whole public outcry about me not being as big people think I should be. They say, ‘What do you have to complain about? You have a great body.’ But if you’re a size 6 or 10, that doesn’t mean you don’t need to see yourself represented too.”
Dalbesio adds that she’s nothing but grateful to Calvin Klein for casting her in the campaign: “What Calvin did was radical. They didn’t book someone who was so large and didn’t make a huge announcement. They just booked a normal girl.” She acknowledges that age-wise, her situation is also unusual: “For Calvin Klein to hire me — for me — at 27 is remarkable.” (Need we remind you that 27 is considered positively ancient in the modeling realm?)
Dalbesio points to an unusual secret for her success. “I watched America’s Next Top Model and listened to Tyra’s posing advice,” she admits. “Seriously.”
