From plus-size models to athletic silhouettes, meet the models changing the fashion industry right now

From plus-size models to athletic silhouettes the fashion industry embraces diversity.

A new photoshoot by Bust magazine features five up and coming models all of whom portray body types that differ from the ultra-skinny models we see on the catwalk nowadays.

ALDA is what the American publication has dubbed the group of the fierce models; Ashley Graham, Danielle Redman, Inga Eirkisdottir, Julie Henderson and Marquita Pring. These ladies are pictured embracing their curves and athletic silhouettes in the photoshoot for the magazine’s latest issue.

A video posted by BUST Magazine (@bust_magazine) on Jan 27, 2015 at 12:50pm PST

A photo posted by A S H L E Y ✨ G R A H A M ™ (@theashleygraham) on Jan 28, 2015 at 9:35am PST

It's the latest move from the fashion industry, which has seen an increase in the diversity of models utilised in shoots.

This week, plus-size model Tess Munster, who sometimes goes by the name of Tess Holliday, became the first model of UK size 24 to be signed by a major model agency.

Milk Model Management announced the contract with the 29-year old with the ‘Curves’ division. Owner and director of the agency, Anna Shillinglaw, said: “She’s such an important role model for so many women.”

Tess is also about 5ft tall, making her bigger and shorter than any other model signed by Milk Model Management. “I understand not everyone understands what I’m about. But to me it’s such a simple concept. It’s all about loving your body regardless of your size and chasing your dreams,” Tess told the Huffington Post.

Like Tess, other plus-size models have landed big fashion gigs too. Candice Huffine, for example, is the first ever plus-size model to be featured on the Pirelli Calendar. Also, last year the UK’s first plus-size fashion magazine successfully hit the shelves worldwide.

Candice Huffine behind the scenes of the Pirelli 2015 shoot

Further spotlight on female body image has come this week from a video created by Buzzfeed. The film depicts the female form and demonstrates how the idea of a woman’s “ideal” body has changed drastically throughout history.

In ancient Egypt, for example, attractive women had slender shoulders and high waist, in the Italian Renaissance they had round stomach and fair skin, in the eighties it was an athletic build with curves, in the twenties women aimed for flat-chest and downplayed waist, but today it is all about the flat stomach, large breasts and big butts.

Photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten captures this change of beauty ideal too in the “Unadorned” project.

'Unadorned' project by Julia Fullerton-Batten (Julia Fullerton-Batten)

'Unadorned' project by Julia Fullerton-Batten (Julia Fullerton-Batten)

She suggests: “Throughout most of the last few millennia, the most sought-after female forms were represented by curvaceous bodies... It is only in very recent times, since Twiggy and Barbie came to the fore in the 1960s, that our narcissistic society reinforced by the media and advertising now interprets the ideal figure to be ultra-thin, enhanced by eating disorders and plastic surgery.”

The year of 2014 was a good one for plus-size modelling and whether publications change their editorial and artistic lines or not, the industry has already shown it is open to embracing diversity.