HSG

Given that Marina Zelner, the founder, CEO, and designer of the Queen Grace collection, had the vision to feature gorgeous plus-size model Kelsey Olson in her line's first-ever campaign, and then had Kelsey joined by stunning goddess Katherine Roll on the runway at Full-Figured Fashion Week 2011, we were delighted to be given the opportunity to interview this new leading light of the plus-size fashion industry.

Our hour-and-a-half discussion turned out to be one of the most significant conversations that we have ever had with any fashion professional. Madame Zelner shared many penetrating insights into the philosophical significance of fashion in general and full-figured fashion in particular, and addressed many of the hot-button issues that confront the industry today.

In particular, Marina shared a revelation that is unimaginably shocking and appalling, for it confirms a measure of corruption within the full-figured fashion industry that, until now, had only been a rumour. Madame Zelner's uncompromising stance in the face of this enticement towards selling-out truly deserves to be called noble, fully in keeping with the aristocratic title of her marque.

The interview also comes illustrated with three never-before-seen outtakes from Kelsey's Queen Grace shoot (exclusively granted to the Judgment of Paris), along with full-size images of all eleven pages from the inaugural Queen Grace catalogue, scanned in higher resolution and truer colour than have hitherto been available on the Web. Be sure to click on the images to view the looks at a larger size.

Kelsey at her princess-like best, from the first-ever Queen Grace photoshoot:

- Click here to read our Queen Grace interview

Meredith

This is one of the most compelling interviews I've ever read on this site. I already admired the Queen Grace collection for the beauty of the clothing and for the fact that it featured Kelsey in its look book, and had both Kelsey and Katherine on the runway, but reading about Ms. Zelner's passion for her endeavour and her unwavering commitment to her customers makes me even more supportive of her line. In Marina, I think we have a champion of plus-size beauty like none other.

But "shocking and appalling" is right. As I was reading the interview, I knew instantly which revelation was meant. It angered more than I can say; more than just about anything I've ever read anywhere:


I wanted to shout at someone when I read this. I can't believe that a agent for a plus-size model -- someone who is supposed to be supporting size celebration, who is supposed to be promoting the use of fuller-figured models -- would tell a model to diminish herself!

That agent basically set out to destroy plus-size beauty; to eliminate a classically curvaceous figure.

There are so few gorgeous and genuinely full-figured models in the industry anyway, and he/she just ruined one of them.

This is worse than anything even an Anna Wintour or a straight-size designer could do. Those people merely affect the minus-size industry. But this agent actually sabotaged the plus-size movement, by eliminating a true plus-size model and turning her into another faux-plus fraud.

Here's the link to the audio of that passage. It makes me livid:

http://www.judgmentofparis.com/queengrace/audio03.mp3

All I can say is, thank goodness Marina realized that she couldn't use these images, and decided to use Kelsey instead:


Bravo! If only more plus-size labels would display this kind of pro-curvy commitment to their customers, the movement would actually advance.

I just dread to think of all of the companies that, when faced with a model so badly diminished from her plus-size self, would still use her images. The fact that Marina resolved not to be a party to such deception makes me want to support Queen Grace that much more.

Tanya

The fact that an agent pressured that model into starving herself down 45 lbs is an outrage. Any agent who takes such an anti-plus position is basically a fifth columnist for the diet-torture industries, and is undermining the plus-size industry from within, decreasing its models' subversive potential -- and their beauty.

The grim irony of the agent's claim to be diminishing a model's size so that she can "get more bookings" is that it doesn't even accomplish that! Far from it -- the model in question LOST this major, major campaign with Queen Grace, (not to mention the chance to represent the line at FFFWeek,) precisely BECAUSE she listened to her curve-o-phobic agent and faded away into a faux-plus size. Something that she supposedly did "for her career" actually turned out to be BAD for her career. So she sold out for no reason at all.

Instead, the model who got this prestigious campaign (and deservedly so), Kelsey, is one who resisted industry pressure to shrivel away her curves, and instead kept her glorious size-16 figure and 39" waist.

This makes me respect models like Kelsey and Katherine even more, because given that there is this kind of a toxic, anti-plus element in the industry, Kelsey and Katherine are truly principled for rejecting it, and for remaining true to their curvaceous selves. They're more beautiful and more important as a result. They are the models who matter, and who are truly inspiring, in a way that a model who diminishes herself can never be.

Kudos to Marina Zelner and Queen Grace for spurning what would have been a meagre, half-measure campaign, and instead giving their crown to the genuinely full-figured and gorgeous models who actually deserve it.

MelanieW

I admire Marina Zelner for all of the pro-curvy statements that she makes in this interview, but especially for her generous words about her models. To many companies and CEOs, their models are little more than chattel, but Ms. Zelner clearly reveres them and sees them as muses and goddesses - which they are.

This also indicates how much respect Queen Grace has for its customers, for just as it sees its curvy models in such a positive way, so does it view its curvy clients.

I have always believed that how a plus-size label approaches its models reflects exactly how it thinks about its customers. If a company features gorgeous size 16s and 18s, like Kelsey and Katherine (as Queen Grace does), then clearly it adores its full-figured clientele and loves their body type. But if a company merely resorts to faux-plus models, then clearly it does not have any esteem for its plus-size customers, and while it is content to take their money, it doesnt even respect them enough to show their body type in its advertising.

Marinas words, like her company images, both testify to a profound admiration for full-figured women.


Not only that, but even if the model who diminishes herself does book any jobs at her whittled-down size, those jobs are worthless, because she is no longer visibly curvy. By this crass "bookings" argument, a model might as well become a size-0 anorexic to get work - that being where such toxic thinking ultimately leads.

No, anyone who pushes a model to starve herself is no friend of the model, nor of full-figured women, nor of the industry, nor of the movement. Rather, a good agent will encourage clients to enthusiastically book a model at her truly full-figured size - especially when, as in the case of Queen Grace, that size-positive intention was right there in the company brief.

Emily

Marina's commitment to size-celebration is truly wonderful, but for me, what really distinguishes Queen Grace from another other label currently offered to plus-size women is its Old World sensibility and its European roots. The passages in the interview that I find most unique are those in which Marina discusses those themes.

For one thing, I love the fact that she uses phrases like "Old World" and even "old-fashioned" in a wholly positive way. I certainly agree with the following propositions:


The designer's European heritage gives her a perspective outside the thin-centric American sensibility:


Crucially, it's not just contemporary Europe that Marina is talking about, but traditional, pre-war Europe, where the aristocracy was in place and celebrated a beauty ideal of which plus-size femininity was but one expression:


You can see how this enriches her choices both in her gorgeous models and in her wonderful taste in design, when she talks about incorporating "ruffles and flowy skirts and bows" in her forthcoming spring collection, and in how she responds to Vogue Italia's "Belle Vere" editorial:


I love the passages in which Marina specifically references her European upbringing. I can relate to this personally, because it reflects my own childhood, as it would for almost anyone who was either born in Europe or was the first-generation son or daughter of European immigrants:


As Marina describes, models like Kelsey and Katherine truly are the embodiments of the fairy-tale princesses of traditional European lore:


The most important passage of the entire interview, I think, is one in which Marina contrasts this traditional European vision with modern media sensibility:


People in the West today, especially in North America, grow up as deracinated units of a consumer culture with no sense of their own heritage and traditions, no knowledge of the legacy of culture that preceded them. This leaves them vulnerable to mass-media indoctrination, to be taken in by the latest trend or fad, however toxic.

But an awareness of one's Old World roots allows a person to see past modern media brainwashing, to recognize the anorexic ideal as a temporary aberration, a deviation from the true, timeless ideal that European aristocratic culture celebrated throughout the ages. It offers a viable alternative to the degenerate society in which we live, a promise of something better and more beautiful.

With her Queen Grace collection, and the images that she generates to promote it, and the goddesses whom she selects to showcase it, Marina Zelner is helping to restore that healthier, more natural, more noble aesthetic.

Shelley

I agree about how wonderful it is to hear Marina praising her models so vocally. It clearly reflects her view of full-figured women in general, which is indicated in all that she says about listening to the wishes of her clientele. She is truly committed to full-figured beauty as a principle, and to individual plus-size women as well.

I love the story of how Kelsey was cast for this campaign:


I feel exactly the same way. Kelsey's images are always very empowering, and they give an accurate read of what an outfit will look like on a curvy body type:


This passage includes the phrase that gives the interview its title, "a regal princess." I find it a clever heading, as it could apply to Kelsey, to Katherine, to Marina herself, or to any curvaceous beauty wearing Queen Grace clothing:


My favourite passage introduces the notion of Kelsey as a "muse," which references Greek mythology -- and we know that Ms. Zelner is familiar with Greek myth, as she herself points out in the passage about the Judgment of Paris painting:


Her description of Katherine Roll and her performance on the runway is equally loving. Even if I hadn't seen the photos from FFFWeek, I would have clearly imagined her runway turn, based on this description.


It's so exciting to have a plus-size designer who thinks of full-figured women this way, who views them as royalty. I think anyone clothing themselves in Queen Grace fashions will be able to feel that aristocratic spirit.

M. Lopez

What I love in the interview is Ms. Zelner's sense of mission. She amply justifies her assertion:


From everything that she says in the interview, I get the feeling that this is true. It's true for herself, true for curvy women in general, and true even from a very personal place - true for her own daughters, as she points out:


That last paragraph is especially important as an answer to those who would make excuses for the thin-supremacist, anorexia-pushing media by claiming that body image is determined at home. As Marina's comments indicate, parents can do everything in their power to foster positive body image in their children, but the toxic culture is all around them, impossible to escape, and it will infiltrate even the healthiest, most traditional household and threaten to undermine all of the positive values that parents try to inculcate.

But the most passionate passage is Marina's cri de coeur to full-figured women to stop wasting their lives trying to starve/torture themselves into artificial, media-acceptable emaciation, and instead to go out and live:


That quote should be taped onto every woman's fridge who has ever denied herself anything - food or fun - just because she doesn't resemble the unnatural, un-Nordic, un-Slavonic, un-Mediterranean, alien standard that the media pushes.

Ms. Zelner recognizes that for some, it isn't easy, but bravo to her for wanting to do whatever she can to liberate women from this negativity and to encourage them to live life to the fullest.

Very, very true.

Kaitlynn

As others have observed, one of the things that makes Queen Grace such a welcome collection is that it is a very personal expression by Marina Zelner. It isn't just an anonymous brand; it has a personality behind it. That's why this interview is so fruitful.

The fact that Ms. Zelner shares exactly the same aggravations that other full-figured women do, and seeks to resolve them in her line, is what makes the whole endeavour so promising.

Take the model issue, for example. She herself acknowledges that she feels just as upset as many other full-figured women do when clothing is presented on models who are smaller than their intended customers. Whether those models are minus-size or faux-plus, it's the same disappointment, the same insult: they're a con; they're just not authentically full-figured.


This frustration is translated right into her label's booking policies, which correct the injustice and get it right:


This shows how important it is for a CEO/designer to be able to truly empathize with her clientele and share their perceptions and understand their wishes.

By the way, on the model issue, I have to point out that once again Full-Figured Fashion Week proves to be the most beneficial plus-size enterprise out there. Did everyone catch how Kelsey got noticed by Queen Grace? It was directly because of Kelsey's selection to participate in FFFWeek:


FFFWeek is the gift that keeps on giving!

HSG

As Emily mentioned earlier in this thread, one of the things that distinguishes the Queen Grace collection is Madame Zelner's opulent taste--her taste in models and her taste in fashion. Taste is a quintessentially aristocratic quality. One can hardly learn taste; one simply has it or one does not. One must be born with it, just as one must be born to the purple.

Allow us to exhibit another manifestation of this exquisite taste: the sophistication of the Queen Grace promotional materials.

When we received our copy of the Queen Grace catalogue, it came in an elegant white folder emblazoned with the line's distinctive coronet-embellished crest.

Inside was a letter from Queen Grace, thanking us for our patronage. It was similarly decorated with the line's attractive logo and folded over in a classic z-fold. This scan shows the elegant silver trim.

The catalogue itself is conveniently spiral bound and shows the royal purple hue, very similar to the colour that the Judgment of Paris has always used for viewed-links text. The eleven looks inside this catalogue are all viewable as full-size scans by clicking on the thumbnail images on our interview page, linked above.

Another 8½×11 page with the Queen Grace logo and sophisticated silver edging features the text of a press release from just prior to Full-Figured Fashion Week. Please click on this image to view it at a larger, readable size.

Finally, a glossy page describes the collection, offers a company overview, and notes Madame Zelner's personal background--which is quite compelling. Everyone who has enjoyed discovering Marina's opinions, as relayed in our interview, will find her biography quite fascinating and inspiring.

Once again, we wish to thank Madame Zelner for engaging with us in such a candid and enlightening interview, and for providing us with such attractive visual material to support the presentation of this intriguing text.

(Click images to view larger.)