SINGAPORE isn’t quite ready for its own Lizzie Miller just yet, said most model and talent agencies The New Paper spoke to.

Out of five agencies contacted, only one said there was a “small increase” in the demand for plus-size models here.

Mr Kit Chng, 30, a booker at Carrie Models International, said Singaporeans, ingeneral, are not receptive towards plus-size models.

He said this is apparent in the fact that the agency doesn’t engage any plus-size models.

Neither have they had clients approach them requesting for such models.

“It is a matter of economics, demand versus supply. Since there is no demand for plus-size models, consequently there is no supply,” he said.

It’s a similar story at Diva Models. Its managing director Ms Rowena Foo, in her 40s, said her modelling agency gets only about three to four calls for larger-sized models in a year.

When that happens, her agency will usually source for plus-size models around the region as they don’t have such models in their stable.

Said Ms Foo: “There’s not been a need or demand so far, we are not in Europe and the US where people are generally bigger so there is more of a demand.
“As Asians, we tend to be built smaller.”

Some demand

But at Create Talents, the demand for plus-size models has been on the rise.

The agency’s booker, Ms Samantha Ho, said she has seen a small increase in demand for such models as compared to four years ago.

Their models are typically booked for health-care-related ads and not fashion editorials.

She said: “This could be attributed to the fact that there are more health product-related ads now than before.”

She explained that plus-size models can potentially earn more than thinner models. It all depends on the roles played and the length of the shoot, she said.

But for fashion editorials, thinner models still dominate, acknowledged Ms Ho.

Recruiting larger-sized models is also tough, she said, as it’s “not easy to find a plus-size person who is confident enough to model.”

Ms Jacky Lee, 33, casting director of Shiny Happy People, which also offers plus-sized models, said: “Clients’ perception of beauty in Singapore is still very conventional, slim is beautiful.

“If a talent agency here specialises in plus-sized talents only, it may not be able to sustain its business, not in the near future anyway.”

But it’s a trend that industry insiders hope will change.

Ms Ho said: “Singaporeans need to learn to accept different perceptions of beauty, plainly because the world is made up of all of us.”

Ms Lee added that Singaporeans today are increasingly more cosmopolitan and more receptive to different things and looks compared to previously.

She said: “Variety is the spice of life, it would be boring to see the same cookie-cutter pretty faces on TV all the time otherwise.”

This article was first published in The New Paper