,WAIT—hedid Meghan’s hair?”
’m regaling Ashley Graham with the
ct that Serge Normant, who styled
er hair for ourHarper’s B A Z A A R
hoot, was responsible for the Duchess
f Sussex’s royal wedding messy bun
and she is thrilled. “That’s so funny,”
raham exclaims. “I always dreamt of
henwegothim,Iknewitwouldbe
rth across international datelines, I’m
speaking to Graham from London, while she is in New York City on
a lunch break at another photoshoot. No rest for the wicked, hey?
“Don’t even worry about it. This is just what we do,” she assures
me, then lets out a belly laugh — wicked, genuine and warm.
By the time you’re reading this, Graham will likely be lighting up
screens across Australia. She’s gearing up to fly to Melbourne for the
Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, better known as
VAMFF. “It’s my first time in Australia,” she says. “I’m so excited to
walk the runway, but I’m also excited to talk about the ways fashion
is changing, and my role in that as a body activist.” I’m glad she
brings up her body activism so early into our conversation. I had
been feeling slightly tortured at the thought of posing questions
about her body, not because she’s unwilling to engage — she speaks
of it often and eloquently — but because in many ways, Ashley
Graham’s size is one of the least interesting things about her.
Yes, she’s a dress size 18 working in an industry that worships
at the altar of Sample Size (a size 6-8), but she also designs highly
successful lingerie, swimsuit and clothing lines; gave a TEDx talk
with close to three million views; and hosts a podcast,Pretty Big
Deal, with guests including Serena Williams, Kim Kardashian and
Amy Schumer. In 2017, Graham was listed as one ofTimemaga-
zine’s 100 Most Influential People (in the Icons category, of
course). This year, she’s launching a lip kit collection with Revlon;
hosting an Ellen DeGeneres-backed series called Fearless;and
hosting and executive producing season two ofAmerican Beauty
Star, a reality show that is a little likeNext Top Model, but for
makeup artists (Graham was a judge onAmerica’s Next Top Model).
Her runway resume includes Dolce & Gabbana, Prabal Gurung
and Michael Kors, and she appeared in David Yurman’s A/W 2018
campaign alongside Joan Smalls and Amber Valletta.
To focus solely on Graham’s size risks undermining what she has
achieved, but then these milestones are all the more remarkable
because she has managed them while being curvy in a sample-sized
world. Thankfully, Graham has no qualms about the fact she is
asked about her body in every interview she gives because she sees
the massive impact these conversations have on the women who
follow her. “After my TED talk came out, I had a girl with an
eating disorder write me and say that I had instilled so much confi-
dence in her, that watching me talk with confidence about my
own body had encouraged her to seek treatment,” she says. “That’s
when I realised,Holy crap, me sharing my story is going to change
people’s lives.” These kinds of messages are now a constant in
Graham’s life. She has more than eight million followers on
Instagram and regularly receives comments like, “I wore a bikini
for the first time today because you inspired me to love myself just
the way I am,” and, “You make me feel empowered about my own
body.” Graham has an open, ongoing dialogue with these fans, and
says she often replies to private messages with videos saying “Thank
you,” “I hear you,” and “I love you.”
At 31, Graham is something of a veteran, having started model-
ling aged 12 after being scouted in a mall in her home state of
Nebraska. “I was lucky my parents let me work at such a young age,”
she says. “I would travel all over the world and fax in my home-
work.” She moved to New York at 17, where she worked steadily as
a catalogue and runway model. At 23, she began to feel restless and
was looking to diversify her career so as to not rely solely on model-
ling for income. “My husband [cinematographer Justin Ervin] said
to me one day, ‘Is this really, truly all you want? What more is there
for you?’ So I started to think more about what is missing in the
industry and, for me, the answer was sexy lingerie that can fit at least
my triple-Ds. Nobody was making any, so I decided to make it.”
Graham reportedly gained investment for her eponymous line
by cornering executives during the lunch breaks on her photo-
shoots and asking them to back her. “Oh yeah, 100 per cent,” she
confirms with a laugh. “I have no shame.”Her lingerie line launched
with Addition Elle in 2014 and the first season didn’t sell well.
“People were like, ‘Why is this girl making lingerie?’ and I said,
‘Because you need it!’ It was as if these women didn’t know they
needed sexy lingerie. We had to show her that she is sexy. After
that, every season was a sellout, sellout, sellout. That was a big ‘Aha’
moment, and it became a matter of,OK, well, what else can I do?”
It’s probably no surprise that Graham looks up to “businesswomen
and CEOs” in addition to models. Her personal mentors are
Gayle King, editor-at-large ofO, The Oprah Magazineand co-anchor
of CBS News’ morning show (“I kind of strong-armed her into
being my mentor,” Graham reveals) and Cindy Eckert, a US-based
entrepreneur best known as the founder of the pharmaceutical
company Sprout Pharmaceuticals, the creators of female Viagra.
Eckert sold the company for $1 billion in 2015, reportedly sued
the new owners for mishandling the marketing and overcharging
consumers in 2016, and then repurchased the company for almost
nothing in 2017. “Having these two women, who I can strategise
with, and who I can call and lean on and text whenever I want,
makes me think about who else I can help,” Graham says, “because
if these two women, who are the busiest women I know, can make
time to help little old me, then what can I do? It’s one thing to talk
about helping other women, but it’s another thing to actually do it.”
Like any top model, Graham can find the world of fashion
intense and overwhelming, and credits the fact she remains so
grounded to her peaceful home life with Ervin. (The couple will
celebrate their ninth wedding anniversary this year.) She also
credits her Christianity. “Honestly, God is the only thing that has
kept me sane,” asserts Graham, who was raised a devout Christian.
Graham made headlines when she revealed she and Ervin had
waited until marriage to have sex. “In the midst of people manip-
ulating your body and demanding what they want of you, your
emotions go wild. I know that at the end of the day, I can sit down
and have a quiet moment and meditate and pray. That, for me, is
so important. I really believe that if you don’t have faith in some-
thing, [stress] will break you eventually — whether it’s the stress of
fashion or the stress of business or just the stress of people.”
Having a strong moral compass means Graham is very careful
with her brand alignments, choosing to work only with those she
feels share her core values. “It’s always a question of,How can
I take this ‘beauty beyond size’ movement that I’ve created and100 HARPERSBAZAAR.COM.AU April 2019