Weight has always been an issue for plus size 46-year-old model Velvet d’Amour from Rochester, N.Y. She struggled in vain for years to meet the modeling industry's unrealistic standard. Surprisingly, it was her giving up on fighting the weight gain that saved the plus-size model’s career.
Velvet d’Amour sacrificed for years trying to get her 5-foot-8 frame down to 117 lbs, but it still wasn’t enough to please modeling agencies. She described one crash diet that she forced herself to endure to In Touch:
“I did one that was 500 calories and a half gallon of water a day. It made me faint...The agency told me I was still too fat, but my body could not get any thinner.”
That is when the wildcard decided that enough was enough. She decided that she would be better off behind the camera, and made the switch from model to photographer.
Velvet turned from a life of restriction to one of indulgence, and gained all the weight she had ever lost, plus quite a bit more.
It was her ballooning waist line that drew the attention, in 2005, of Paris’ first modeling agency for plus-size women.
Since then, the once again model has worked with industry icons like John Galliano and Jean Paul Gaultier.
D’Amour has even gone on to found fashion magazine, Vol Up 2, that focus on all kinds of different shapes and sizes. She described the magazines mission to In Touch:
“[To] encourage readers to revel in their every ‘imperfection’ and celebrate their bodies in the glorious entirety.”
That’s beautiful.
