Model Behaviour

From shooting for Vogue Italia to sitting FROW at New York Fashion Week, Louise O’Reilly is one of Ireland’s most successful models. She tells Niamh O’Reilly why she’s so passionate about helping others with their body confidence.

“When I look back at teenage me, I never thought I could have the opportunity to wear current trends”, says Louise. “And now I love to figure out how I can do the latest trends on my size and make it work, even when people think I can’t do it”, she declares ruefully. “I do it because I want other people to be able to wear the trends that are my size and bigger, or any size”.

Louise is one of the best known plus size models in the world having worked with a host of mega brands and designers, shooting for Vogue Italia and walking in numerous international Fashion Weeks, but when she started out, there were very few prospects for a curvy model in Ireland. “I used to do the Afternoon Show on RTÉ two or three times a week, but I ended up being signed to a German agency and did lots of work out there where the industry was huge” she recalls. It was while working in Germany that Louise got scouted for the UK through her portfolio online and in the blink of an eye everything changed.

“Within 24 hours I was on a plane to Liverpool for a casting for Shop Direct [Littlewoods, V by Very]. It was a huge opportunity, because they had literally just launched their curve line, and I was their plus size model, so it was a huge honour.” While on the shoot, a makeup artist took a shine to Louise, passed her photo onto an agent friend of his and she ended up signing with London’s Model One who had some huge names on their books at the time.

“­They were opening a plus size model board and I was one of the first curve models to be signed with them, it was a big thing and it all happened very quick”, she recalls.

While all of that might sound like a serendipitous break, or a case of simply being in the right place at the right time, it was far from it. Louise worked hard to hone her craft and stood out thanks to her sunny personality and positive energy. Still, it was only the early days of plus size models breaking through to the mainstream and Louise had to fight to get her foot in the door.

“It was hard, nobody gave plus size models a chance. Even in a shoot capacity you almost had to convince photographers that you could do what these other girls can do. You had to fight your case,” she recalls. “London was a huge eye opener, because when you sign it doesn’t stop there, you’ve got to keep working and prove yourself.” Busy chasing down castings and go-see’s, it was a non-stop work for the ambitious model.

RE-WRITING THE RULES

Louise’s breakthrough came at a time when the fashion industry was starting to change, plus size representation was beginning to increase and social media was about to re-write the fashion rules, but as much as the tide was turning, Louise still had to consistently break down barriers along the way.

“You had to bang down doors and it wasn’t about me. When I was growing up there was no one who looked like me in advertising and the more shoots I did, the more things I featured in, the more messages I got from people.” Louise soon realised she was representing an entire cohort of women who had felt marginalised or airbrushed out of the fashion world. Positive, supporting and encouraging, she’s vocal about making waves not just for her, but for the entire sisterhood.

“My self-confidence was extremely low growing up. In my teenage years, I had nobody who really looked like me who I could identify with”, she muses. “­ The only person that was on TV who talked about different bodies was Oprah Winfrey and other than that you didn’t see diversity in any situation, and it made it harder for me and others.” ­ The lack of diversity was stark and while the ‘if you can see it you can be it mantra’ is huge today, for young Louise, there was no one who looked like her that she could hold up as an aspirational figure.

“I struggled”, she admits. “I didn’t know what to wear, I didn’t know what to pick. I was trying to pick clothes my friends would wear who were much smaller than me and they might not look the same on me because we had different shapes. It was always a struggle.”

Louise’s confidence grew however and through her experience in the world of high fashion, she channelled her passion to help other women who faced body confidence issues into an award-winning blog that’s become the fashion bible for curvy style. “I was spending a lot of time travelling and spent a lot of time on my own. Once you’re finished working you are in a hotel room by yourself, so I set up stylemecurvy.net.”

Still in college at the time her career was taking off , Louise missed home, but her parents knew what she was doing was bigger than her. “My parents saw that there weren't many people doing this and how important it was and on an international scale it was really gaining ground and I even started to get work in New York”.

As Kim Kardashian became the curvy fashion icon of the moment and the world began to embrace greater body diversity, Louise found her influence explode, but with over 150,000 followers on Instagram and the weight of expectation as a role model for curvy women, does she find it all a bit overwhelming?

“I never see myself as a role model, I just see myself as someone who genuinely wants to help people”, she chimes. With a broad following, she gets hundreds and even thousands of messages a week from stressed out women from the ages of 17 to 75 panicking about what to wear on holiday or for events. With people’s weight fluctuating after lockdowns or even once reliable clothes brands changing their sizing, there is a wave of women who are worried about how to dress for their shapes. “I feel compelled to help and I really want to help them, even if it means sending them links and ideas to different dresses that’s what I try to do, but I need to try and pace myself too”, she laughs.

Louise is keen to help fellow women to start embracing their bodies and stop fixating on the negatives. “So many people are still so focused on size and it’s important to remember you are the only person who knows what size you’re wearing.” The most important thing, she stresses, is how you feel. “Be comfortable in what you’re wearing and you’ll feel good. You don’t want to be wearing things that are digging in or make you feel more self-conscious, so even if you have to go up one size or two sizes, again you’re the only person who knows the size on your label. It really makes an overall difference to how you look and feel.”

STYLING TIPS

So what are Louise's top tips on getting our wardrobes working for our bodies and not the other way around?

“Have key pieces in your wardrobe that you know you look good in, so even if it’s not a great day, you’ll have that go-to in your wardrobe that makes you feel confident,” she advises. “ The other big thing is limiting negative self-talk, so when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror instead of picking holes over what you see in front of you, maybe give yourself a compliment.”

Easier said than done for some, but Louise is keen to stress that body confidence can take practice.

“Be kind to yourself” she insists. “Body confidence ebbs and flows, it's important to remember that not everyday is going to be a good one, but you have to work at it, you have to be patient with yourself, it’s a work in progress it’s not going to happen overnight, but you need to work on it and the results are worth it”.

For Louise, the industry has changed hugely since she first appeared on the Afternoon Show; many of those changes she’s been at the forefront of and precipitated herself, but as far as we’ve come, she feels there’s more to be done. “The only way to do it, is for body diversity to be authentic and consistent.

We don't want tokenistic once-offs. I’m a huge advocate for diversity across all elements and that means ethnicity, but also in age and I would love to see older women represented in the fashion landscape as well.”

Finally, what about Louise's fashion favourite trends of the moment?

“Definitely pink and colour popping”, she bursts. “I’m loving pops of colour; neon’s are a huge trend now. Go for bright colours and lots of print. If anyone is going to invest in colour blocks, try pink and orange or cobalt blue. They are going to be really practical pieces that you will be wearing this Christmas as pink is going to be big this festive season and you can recycle it and wear it next summer too!”

Follow us on Instagram