Marcela Gaya Baccarim Fagundes is a Portuguese-speaking plus size model and influencer. According to her Facebook page “about” section, she was Miss Brasil Plus Size 2014. 

She posts videos where she styles the same clothes in two different ways. This way she proves how powerful styling can be. Marcela posts these videos on several different platforms: Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Combining all her platforms, she has over 1M followers.

Have you ever wondered how the plus-size movement came to be? Bored Panda has the answer to your question! 

Back in the 1800s, the ideal body shape was a curvy one. Things changed in the 1900s. As technology advanced and clothing became mass-manufactured, fewer variations in body type became popular. 

In 1904, the first exclusively plus-size retailer came into the market. Lane Bryant opened up a store in New York City. One of the customers requested a maternity dress, which was considered taboo at the time. The dress was the first of that kind.

In 1909, Albert Malsin, a mechanical engineer, became so inspired by L. Bryant’s adjustable waistbands that he patented new designs to fit varying sizes of women’s bodies.  

A. Malsin conducted research, during which he learned that women’s bodies, especially above a certain size, varied greatly in shape from person to person.

In the 1940s, America was trying to assert itself as a leader in the fashion industry. And so, it was decided that the ideal American woman was tall, athletic, and well-rounded. That meant that all women who didn’t fit this definition were basically crossed out from fashion.

Even when plus-size clothes were sold, the illustrations in ads didn’t realistically portray the women and the language used bordered on offensive.

In the 1960s, women came together to fight weight bias. Though the movement wasn’t about fashion, it set the stage for the shift in attitude. 

In the 1970s, fashion became more about loving our bodies than trying to hide and conceal our natural shapes.

In the 1980s, the term “plus size” was born. It meant all sizes from 14 and up. 

In the new century, the body-positive movement began. Body positivity is a social movement focused on the acceptance of all bodies, no matter their size, shape, physical abilities and so on.

And while we see more and more variations of body types in everything, it is still not as common as skinniness. We could say that we are still kind of suffering from such ideas as the “ideal American woman”. But people like Marcela, who we talked about in this article, are those who slowly are closing the gap between different body size representation.