Ashley Graham unfailingly makes us take note with each of her editorial feat. She's made history with her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue appearances: After being one of the issue's first two plus-sized models via her Swimsuitsforall ad campaign in 2015, she became the issue's inaugural plus-size cover model in the annual issue one year later. Then, she checked an item off her career bucket list this month with her British Vogue cover. Now, she's featured in her edgiest, most fashion-forward spread yet, inside the latest issue of V.
Shot at the Standard Hotel's Meatpacking location in NYC by famed photographer Steven Klein, who reliably produces boundary-pushing imagery, Graham dons lingerie and not much else (save for a few capes and some fishnets) in the spread.
"Meet Ashley Graham and it won’t be just her beauty — and her unabashed voluptuousness — that will astound you," Stephen Gan, V' s editor-in-chief, told Refinery29. "She's got a high-spirited personality to match, too. Combine all of that with her wit and you've got a major powerhouse to be reckoned with, like a modern-day Mae West meets Warhol superstar. Steven Klein's pictures, to me, capture her in all her glory."
The full spread is on V's site and in the IRL issue, which hits newsstands today (and features seven different covers, starring Kendall Jenner, Joan Smalls, Lara Stone, Amber Valleta, Carolyn Murphy, Lily Aldridge, and Ellen Rosa).
Ahead, check out Graham's very chic V debut, and some highlights from her interview with the glossy.
Inside the issue, Graham is interviewed by Chelsea Handler. Their candid conversation ranges from the negative connotations of the word "diva" to Graham's best quality ("being able to have a vulnerable moment with anybody") to her relationship with her sisters.
Photo: Courtesy of Steven Klein/V.
Graham also divulges the "kind of selfish" reason she launched her own lingerie line, as well as how the term "plus-size" has seriously irked her for years: "It's completely divisive," she tells Handler.
Photo: Courtesy of Steven Klein/V.
Graham also discusses her bravest, proudest moment, and nope, it's not getting photographed in her skivvies or a bikini, she notes. "One of the bravest moments for me was leaving an agent I had been with for 10 years. I was agentless for about eight months and it was a very scary time of my life — I had no idea what I was going to do," the model told Handler. But, luckily, something great came out of Graham's uncertainty-filled stint without representation.
Photo: Courtesy of Steven Klein/V.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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