KEY POINTS:
Beth Ditto, the larger-than-life rock star, is fanning the flames of the size-zero debate just days before a month of fashion shows kicks off, courtesy of a super-sized couture shoot in an influential style journal.
The pictures, in POP magazine, provide a sharp contrast to the undersized models expected on the catwalks of New York and London.
Ditto, lead singer of US band the Gossip, has found herself as the poster-girl of a backlash against women starving themselves to childlike sizes.
An independent inquiry will report on the issue of models' health next month, after pressure from anti-size-zero campaigners.
At little more than 5ft, Ditto weighs in at 15 stone, yet the 26-year-old, who grew up in rural Arkansas, is now a style icon.
Katie Grand, fashion stylist and editor-in-chief of POP, said: "Beth Ditto has become an accidental size hero for the size-zero age ... She has become a generational icon, confounding the tedious stereotypes of what it is to be a wonderful 21st-century woman."
Grand's decision to feature Ditto is significant because it goes against the grain in a fashion industry where size still rules.
"She is a very good, positive role model. There is something about her that makes everybody say, 'I'd like to be like that,'" Grand adds.
Despite her reputation as an feminist with outlandish fashion sense, Ditto admits some things still rattle her.
"I'm afraid of being naked!" she says in the POP interview.
"I was scared to death of being in a bikini for POP. I grew up poor white trash. I have hairy armpits. I'm fat."
Ditto is one of a clutch of women, including Lindsay Lohan, Yoko Ono and Lily Allen, featured in the magazine who represent "real women" in Grand's eyes.
"None of them are traditional women in any way.
I like the fact that none of them are traditional sample sizes," Grand says.
In the UK, the British Fashion Council (BFC) has tried to deflect the heat attached to its refusal to ban size-zero models from the catwalks at next month's London Fashion Week by setting up an independent inquiry into models' health.
Grand is among the scores of fashion world insiders who have given evidence to the inquiry, which is chaired by Baroness Kingsmill.
The final report, due out within days, is not expected to reverse the BFC's stance on size zero.
Grand says it is difficult to ban models like Gisele, the Brazilian supermodel who "eats and drinks an enviable amount" yet still maintains a physique that most women long to attain.
Designers showing at next month's London shows, including Paul Smith and Julien Macdonald, have been warned "to be aware of size and health-related issues when casting models," said a spokeswoman for the event.
Some London Fashion Week sponsors, who include Canon, Topshop, Red Bull and Lavazza coffee, are nervous of any bad publicity that the event might attract unless it is seen to be tackling the size-zero issue.
A Topshop spokesman said the chain would "withdraw support from any designer or designer scheme" that did not adhere to its guidelines, which say that all models used must be "healthy and over 16".
- INDEPENDENT
