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32 ELLECANADA.COM
TEXT,^ PATRICIAKAROUNOS;^ PHOTOGRAPHY,^ LILY^ CUMMINGS(L.CHAN)^ &GEOFFREY^ ROSS^ (SMEAR)Lauren
Chan
The model and designer on fighting
for size inclusivity and launching
her own fashion brand.
woman who shops for plus-size
clothes is treated the same as
the woman who shops for
straight sizes, we aren’t done.”STYLE FILE “I gravitate toward
things that are generally of-
fered in menswear—oversized
blazers, pants. I barely wear
skirts or dresses.”WARDROBE ESSENTIALS “My
favourite items right now are
J.Crew jeans—they fit me
well because I’m not curvy on
the bottom and they tend to
be straight cut—and soft but-
ton-downs. And I love the
classic Vans slip-ons because
they’re comfortable and go
with everything.”FULL BROWS “The one beauty
thing that I always do is my
eyebrows; I use a Benefit brow
pencil. And I’ve recently been
obsessed with M.A.C’s Velvet
Teddy lipstick.”FAVE TV BINGE “Jane the
Virgin is so good; I’m so upset
that it’s ending. I put the [final
season] premiere date in my
calendar because I need to
know what’s going on.”IMAGINE BEING A fashion
editor with nothing to wear.
That’s how New York-based
model (and Brantford, Ont.,
native) Lauren Chan felt when
she started her career in pub-
lishing seven years ago. “I was
writing all this great stuff
about plus-size fashion and
really pushing for diversity,
but I was having a hard time
getting dressed for work [be-
cause of the lack of inclusive
sizing],” says Chan, who
was, at the time, an editor at
Glamour. Never one to sit
back and wait for change (“It’s
very important to me that my
work does some kind of social
good”), Chan took matters
into her own hands: This fall,
she’s launching Henning,
a chic workwear brand for
sizes 12 and up.TIME FOR A CHANGE “When I
started working in fashion, size
inclusion was not in the zeit-
geist, so I think it’s important
to celebrate all the wins we’ve
had so far—like designers ex-
panding sizes and more plus-
size models getting major
campaigns. But we still have
a long way to go. Until theFrom top: Chan wearing a stretch-wool trench coat and an anti-
wrinkle poplin top, Henning ($750 and $250, henningnyc.com);
M.A.C Cosmetics Lipstick in Velvet Teddy ($23, maccosmetics.
ca); slip-on sneakers, Vans Classic ($65, at Nordstrom, nordstrom.
com); Benefit Cosmetics Goof Proof Brow Pencil ($32, at Sephora,
sephora.ca); Gina Rodriguez in Jane the Virgin