Proving that the ‘real beauty’ and plus-sized modelling trends are going global, Talent Management heard some great news this week – six curvaceous women have just won a modelling competition in Canada for a clothing and lingerie brand.

Forever Yours Lingerie and LUCY Clothing, both owned by Canadian entrepreneur Sonya Perkins, announced the winners of their model search last Saturday.

A far cry from your typical waif-like models, Sarah Baarda, Yogeeta Lai and Kaleigh McDonald were chosen to model for the lingerie line, while Chelsey Hibbs, Tiffany McFadyen and Danielle Keil were picked to model looks for the sister fashion boutique.

With the fittings, test shoots and winners’ photos out of the way, the six models in the making, who have had no previous modelling experience until now, are ready to shoot for the brands’ national advertising campaigns this fall.

“It is incredibly humbling to be selected to represent a brand like LUCY Clothing,” one of the competition’s winners Tiffany said. “I’m still in shock; the other finalists are all gorgeous!”

As well as being refreshed to see different body shapes represent a brand, we were also impressed to find out that the photographs released by Perkins have not been airbrushed. “We know it is common in the industry to alter a model’s photographs, we haven’t done that with any of our finalists’ images,” she said.

As any avid reader of the Talent Management Blog will know by now, we love to see diversity in the modelling industry, not to mention un-retouched imagery.

But what’s particularly interesting about this story, is that rather than go to a standard modelling agency, full of skinny, ethereal-looking models, or even a plus-size modelling agency, equally full of un-relatable beauty, Perkins decided to create a competition as she wanted to cast models that represented the stores’ customer base.

“We were looking for real women who could wear the bras and clothing lines that we sell in each of our locations,” she said.

With recent research suggesting women are more likely to buy clothing when it’s modelled on a woman of their own size and age, and shown in a natural un-retouched imagery, Talent Management is ready to embrace this trend, welcoming a whole range of real and relatable models on our books.

So if you think you’d like to give modelling a go, and the fact that you’re not a 6 foot Amazon goddess has held you back, then maybe think again. Find out more about becoming a model over on Talent Management’s dedicated modelling site, Models Direct.