May 11, 20178 yr SiriusXM "Leading Ladies" event with model Ashley Graham at the SiriusXM Studios on May 10, 2017 in New York City.
May 12, 20178 yr Lane Bryant and Ashley Graham celebrate the launch of her new book "A New Model" at Indochine on May 11, 2017 in New York City.
May 15, 20178 yr 2017 Miss USA pageant on Sunday (May 14) at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev.
May 16, 20178 yr book signing for her brand new memoir, A New Model at the Barnes & Noble in West Hollywood
May 24, 20177 yr Ashley Graham - Behind The Scenes In Fiji (Unfiltered), SI Swimsuit 2017 27 MB | 00:01:21 | 1920x1080 | MP4UploadedDepositfiles
May 25, 20177 yr Ashley Graham was spotted getting in a grueling workout with her husband of seven years, Justin Ervin, in Los Angeles
June 3, 20177 yr coveteur.com By: Noah Lehava Styling: Stephanie Mark Photography: Renée Rodenkirchen In life, one can only dream of having a single momentous, groundbreaking, career-changing trajectory moment like that of model Ashley Graham. We’re talking about the moment every single effing outlet went absolutely haywire (in the best way possible) when her Swimsuits For All advertisement rooted itself in the pages of Sports Illustrated—a glossy that was, until Graham, seemingly exclusive to the sample-sized. The truth is, Graham is insanely relatable on so many levels. We mean, so much so that we pretty much established friends-for-life status the moment we stepped into her Brooklyn home. Let’s just say that before we could even put down our bags, she’d slipped into her new lacy Addition Elle lingerie from her soon-to-be released fall collection (sneak peek, ya’ll), shimmied through the window and climbed up the terrifying fire escape (okay, more like we were terrified. Girl ran up that so fast, we could hardly keep up) for our magic hour rooftop photo shoot—yeah, we got real close, real fast. And things only continued from there—as in, there may have been twerking while Snapchatting going on, and yes, there was a whole lot of Mary Katrantzou, Alexander McQueen and a serious collection of Nike Frees, you know, to satiate our sartorial cravings (because, duh). Just as we were finishing up rummaging through her closet (you know, post-rooftop romp), Graham had us follow her as she snuck onto the neighbor’s stoop and hopped on a bike to wheel around the block for one last photo opp. And all this before we got to talking about designing lingerie for curvy women of all sizes, the moment she changed one person’s life, and looking up to models like Kathy Ireland and Heidi Klum. “Those girls, I mean I’ve watched their careers and they have just blossomed into extraordinary and amazing things. I can’t wait to be the curvier version of all of them.” Ashley, we'll totally put our money on it. “I’ve faced criticism my whole career. It’s come from fans, it’s come from agents, and it’s come from other models. But I think that it’s all a matter of how you handle it and I turned it all into a positive thing. Now the industry has totally changed and it’s not as much about size anymore—everyone’s really jumped on the bandwagon of not letting size be the defining factor of determining what beauty truly is.” “From day one, I’ve been involved very thoroughly [with Addition Elle]. I fly to Canada every time a new collection is being made to talk about design, the process, what fabrics were being used, what laces we’re using, where the laces are coming from, inspiration, and the whole back story of each collection." "The only thing that I actually haven’t done yet is, I’m pushing to go to Paris Fashion Week for one of the lingerie shows. The designers at Addition Elle are absolutely amazing. I mean, the whole team is really forward-thinking in the whole fashion process and they’re not thinking about dressing plus-size women, they’re thinking ‘okay we might have a larger breast in front of us, but what does she actually want to wear?’ So to be involved with them has been an incredible process from the beginning.” “My favorite movie of all time is Princess Bride—such a good one. And you know what’s funny about all of these movies? My husband is a cinematographer, you should see the box that’s under our bed with DVDs in it. It’s kind of insane.” "I think something that kind of put me on the map was the Lane Bryant commercial that got banned from TV. I was in my lingerie and I think people saw that; they saw a bigger girl on TV and they were like ‘well, what’s the big deal if she’s in her lingerie, she looks like me’ and that’s exactly what people want to see, yet again, it’s the same thing as the Swimsuits for All in the magazine. People are craving to see a curvier body, different shapes of bodies, to bring that diversity into mainstream media.” “When I was 12 years old at a mall, somebody was like ‘Hey, do you want to be a model?’ They didn’t tell me I was a plus-sized model right away, they let a bigger agency size me; they were more of a mother agent at the time. I never really looked at it as a negative thing because I’ve always been the bigger girl and have had to deal with those situations in school, so I just kind of dealt with it. But then when you meet other women who look like you, who are as tall as you, who are as big as you and they’re like ‘I’m gorgeous and I’m amazing.’ So it turned into a very positive thing for me.” “Something that has gotten me where I am is my good old mom. She really is so insightful—she said kindness will get you further than anything in life and it’s been true. I’ve been very kind to people, I’ve been a boss in situations that I’ve needed to be, but I’ve done it all with kindness and I think that is a huge need in the industry.” "My weight hasn’t gone up or down, I’ve regulated it now for about 7 years and it’s due to the fact that I’m happy and confident in who I am and I’m not letting other people dictate where my career is going based on the size of my hips.” “[My workout videos are] one of those things that just fell into my lap. I’m a true believer that if something falls into your lap, then that is the direction you’re supposed to be going in, and that’s exactly what happened." "I am basically like a pharmacy of amazingness. I feel like I need to be prepared for any situation, so [in my bag] I’ve got band aids, contacts, Kleenex, superglue, safety pins, bobby pins, pen, paper, hair ties, and I definitely always have bras and extensions with me everywhere I go because a girl can’t be left without having my girls looking high and I love extensions—it’s such a part of my life. Definitely headphones because when I’m on the train I can’t live without them. And a great pair of sunnies.” “I do say, if you’re looking to be a model you have to really ask yourself why do you want to be a model? A lot of women tell me that they want to be a model because it’s going to make you feel beautiful, going to make you famous, and that you’re going to make all of this money, and none of those things will happen. Those things will happen by sheer luck. So you have to ask yourself how much patience you have. I think it’s an amazing industry, but you need a lot of patience. It’s an industry where, if you work hard and you have a vision of where you want to be, you can make a difference and be heard. It’s an industry that’s very open to a lot of types of people and open to seeing new visions and new voices.”
June 3, 20177 yr "When they told me [the Swimsuits for All campaign] was going to be in Sports Illustrated, I said ‘oh cool, that’s great’, not really thinking of what the impact was going to be. When the press had come out saying ‘the first plus-size model to ever be in Sports Illustrated’ I was like ‘oh, well, I heard about another model who had actually shot at Sports Illustrated, that’s amazing’ and then I looked at the photo and was like ‘what! It’s me!’ but I’m not in Sports Illustrated, it’s an ad y’all!" “I just did a TED Talk in Valencia, Spain that I will never forget and hope that I am able to give more. Speaking engagements are turning into something that are going to be the next steppingstone in my career; motivational speaking. That was incredible." “Swimsuits for All asked me to do the campaign and it was kind of a no-brainer. They’re such an amazing swimwear company, who isn’t just focused on the traditional plus size. They go quite low in their sizes and go up to a 24, maybe even 26, and to be a part of a brand that does that is quite outstanding." “I wash my face every night with a cleanser and exfoliant combination from Murad and I use this serum iS Clinical every night and in the morning—I don’t wash my face [in the morning], I just rinse it. I have been changing my moisturizer every 4-5 months. Right now I’m really obsessed with Charlotte Tilbury because she has SPF in it and I’m outside so much because it’s summertime. But I also love the Rodin face oil as well.” “I spray rose water on my face morning noon and night. I spray it before I moisturize and after I moisturize. I spray it while I’m on the airplane, I spray it on in between outfits on set because it actually sets your makeup and helps it to have a more natural dewy look.” "I had an agent wave money in my face and say ‘if you go from a size 18 to a 14, you will make all of this money and more’ and I still didn’t even have the gumption to lose the weight, it was really when I said ‘I don’t care what people think about me, I’m not going to change the way I look for clients, I just want to do what makes me happy and be happy doing it’. That’s when I got really healthy and I went down to a 14/16." “[My first every designer splurge was] a Betsy Johnson dress right when I first moved to New York at 17.”
June 3, 20177 yr “I’ve always dressed kind of sexy but I feel like I’ve perfected the sexy into something that isn’t necessarily slutty. I think when I was younger I would be like ‘oh if my belly’s out I’m ultimately sexy’. You can have a turtleneck dress all the way down to the ankles and it still be super sexy. I let my curves be my accessory and I like to dress up my curves. I’m always showing off my waist and I like having something that’s hugging my hips or letting my lingerie and some sexy cleavage hang out. And it’s not always at the same time, or sometimes it is.” “I got told at the very beginning, when I was about 12 years old, ‘if you lost a ton of weight, you could be a major model’ and my mom just looked at the lady, started laughing and said ‘we won’t be doing that’. That gave me so much confidence because if my mom didn’t think I needed to lose weight, then obviously I didn’t need to. You look up to your parents or whoever raises you for that validation and that was something that my mother was not even concerned about.” “Later in my career, when I moved to New York at 17, I actually went from around a size 12/14 to a size 18. And it was because I didn’t really know how to take care of myself. Yes, I was a plus-sized model but that doesn’t mean you don’t take care of yourself. At home I had my mom cooking for me and cleaning for me and all of a sudden I’m thrown into a grown-up world and I don’t really know how to handle all of those things. I really had to take control of my health in such a big way and start to regulate my weight." “Okay well some people might roll their eyes really hard at me but I don’t care—I love Kim Kardashian’s style. I think she is so cute all the time and I definitely love what Beyoncé has been doing lately.” "But that was just the way that the media had spun [the Swimsuits for All ad and it was an honor. Even to have the Sports Illustrated people truly behind the ad was encouraging because I think what it did was opened up a lot of people’s eyes to help them understand that even though it is Sports Illustrated, this customer wants to see me in the magazine. They are feeling very isolated by seeing only one kind of body in a magazine and they want to see diversity. So I think that this was groundbreaking on so many different levels, not only in my career, but also for the minds of people behind the doors.” “I really truly believe that beauty is beyond size because there is beauty in every type of woman and that’s really want I want the Curvy Fit Club to be, revolutionary for women and understanding that it’s not about getting ripped abs and a really toned gym butt, it’s really about taking care of your body and believing that it is able and willing to do exactly and everything that you want it to do.” “I have a couple of big speaking engagements coming up that I’m really excited about, so I think a couple of my goals are to have this really be another tier within my career, underneath my brand, and also to hopefully have a clothing line coming out very soon.” “It was an early morning and I got an email on my website and it was this young girl who was in her mid-twenties and she said ‘I just want to thank you because today I decided to not throw up. And I’ve been throwing up for six years. And it’s because I watched your TED Talk.’ And although she’s a size 4, she said, ‘I realized it’s not about my size, it’s not about what people think of me, it’s about how I feel about myself and I don’t feel great about myself so today I decided to not throw up and change my life. Thank you’. And I started crying because I was like oh my god, if I could just change one life, then I’m doing something right.” “I definitely look up to Kathy Ireland, Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks and Cindy Crawford. Those girls, I mean I’ve watched their careers and they have just blossomed into extraordinary and amazing things. I can’t wait to be the curvier version of all of them.” "I started putting my workout videos on my Instagram with my trainer because, yes, I’m a lingerie model but I’m also very curvy. How do I keep things in tact and in place and only jiggle where it’s supposed to jiggle? So girls started asking for more and more and more and I did a couple of episodes with Net-A-Porter that came out in January and honestly, I made it for a woman who just wants to feel better about herself. I did it for the girl who just wants to be healthy, who wants to get off the couch and do something, because it shouldn’t be about your size to determine if you’re healthy or not. You can go to a doctor and determine all of that but I really truly believe that you can be healthy at any size, as long as you’re getting off the couch and moving your body.” “In 2012, I approached Addition Elle and said that I wanted to create a line with them. In November 2013, the line launched. And it was successful immediately—because I am the customer, I have triple D boobs, I have a 36 inch hip—I know what I want to see in my closet and that’s exactly what I want to create for the customer. People have perfected the uber sexy, sultry look in lingerie, but to have the two together, for breasts my size and even bigger, because we go up to a G and H cup now, it’s very difficult to find those things together. So that’s exactly what I wanted to create and that’s the inspiration truly behind the whole desire of doing a lingerie line." “I have a necklace, I actually forget the brand but it’s from Barneys—it’s a necklace that has a circle and if you blow on it or spin it, it says I Love You. I had just broken up with a nasty boyfriend who made me feel like the scum of the earth and [I bought it] to remind myself that I was worth it. I wore this necklace every day for three years.” coveteur.com
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