In the lead up to the London screening of RNZ documentary series Cutting the Curve, we had a heart-to-heart with co-producer Evelyn Ebrey.
Evelyn Ebrey has worked in fashion for most of her career yet as a size 16-18 she’s mostly felt like an outsider and left with few options to wear.
The filmmaker and former FashionNZ editor was not alone in feeling optimism in recent years as fashion made real strides toward size inclusivity, so the current craze for skinny and demand for weight loss drug Ozempic has been crushing to say the least.
Cutting the Curve explores the backlash against body diversity in fashion and curated tokenism. At the centre is Samoan New Zealand opera singer-turned-model Isabella Moore.
For Ebrey, it’s also personal.
Why was it important to you to make this documentary?
Ultimately, I want the fashion industry and the people in general to understand what the experience of being in a bigger body is like and how important it is that we continue to see models of all shapes and sizes in fashion imagery and a broader range of sizes available. Everyone deserves to wear clothes that fit them well and that make them feel good about themselves, and that bigger people were excluded from that for such a long time, with very limited options is not acceptable.
Fatphobia is so deeply ingrained in our society and it’s only over the past decade or so that we’ve seen any meaningful change in how we approach body size more inclusively, that things have been regressing recently should concern everyone. I want continued meaningful change in terms of plus size visibility and extended size ranges, and it’s something I’ll continue to fight for in every way that I can.
How did you secure Isabella Moore?
Isabella was one of the people I interviewed for the FashioNZ article titled ‘Why plus size models are not a trend’ in 2022. That was the starting point for the series. When [director] Julia and I began discussing the idea of developing it as a documentary we knew that we would need someone at the centre of the narrative who was experiencing the issues we wanted to talk about. I had interviewed Isabella a couple of times and knew she was great on camera and Julia agreed that we should reach out to her. I chatted with Isabella on Zoom and she was really receptive to the idea, and the opportunity to share her story. That was early 2023, and we filmed the first teaser with her in May 2023. It has been quite a journey since then but one of the best parts of this process has been getting to know both Isabella and Julia better.
Model Isabella Moore. Photography of this image and main image outside Buckingham Palace, London by Jason Crane.
What was the most shocking discovery you made while making the doco?
To see the massive rise in popularity of Ozempic and SkinnyTok coupled with a noticeable regression in the visibility of plus size models and inclusive sizing since we started making this series. It’s felt like much of the progress that was made by the body positivity movement has gone out the window lately. When we are at London Fashion Week in February, we weren’t sure what to expect in terms of curve model representation on the runway but that it ended up being a 68% drop from the previous season was horrifying, especially when there weren’t that many curve models to begin with. Every fashion week for that season had a 50% or greater drop in representation which is really frustrating and has a flow on effect for the fashion industry of less curve models being featured by brands in general.
Can you tell us why this project is so deeply personal to you…
I’ve existed in a body which doesn’t fit fashion’s sample size obsession for my entire life and that experience, which Isabella and I share, is something that I wanted to explore in this series because I think unless it’s your lived experience, you don’t understand what it’s actually like. Nor would you understand why it matters so much that we see lots of different sized bodies in fashion imagery and a proper selection of sizes in stores. I was a teen in the 90s and in my twenties in the 00s which were periods of time when women were consistently body shamed for being anything other than tiny and size 00 was what everyone was idolising. It was a deeply damaging era for many women’s body image and being the age I was, it was messaging I know I internalised to my detriment like a lot of other women. We’ve made so much progress since then, it’s crucial that we don’t go backwards now, especially for the next generations of girls and women coming though.
Evelyn Ebrey at the premiere of Cutting the Curve at The Shelter, Ponsonby, Auckland.
You shared at the launch there are so many NZ brands that you cannot wear. Can you share how that makes you feel?
To love a collection but to have nothing in my size that fits me makes me feel excluded and it sucks. It’s really frustrating and it took me a long time to get to a place when I know that it’s not my body that’s the problem, it’s the clothes. Because the message you get when nothing is in your size is that you’re the problem and that no-one has considered that someone of your size would also like to wear that garment. I can appreciate that for a long time sizes 8 – 14 were the standard for fashion, especially designer fashion, but that doesn’t make it right and now that we know better we should be doing better. The majority of women in Aotearoa are over a size 14 so there’s money to be made there but there’s still so many brands that aren’t capitalising on that market which is a shame.
How do you personally view the term plus-size?
I think it’s a bit strange that a term that was initially just meant for clothing has ended up being used to describe people but I’m quite neutral about the term itself. I don’t view it as an insult or a negative, it’s simply a description and if I’m shopping it lets me know if there are clothes that will likely fit my size 16/18 body which is helpful.
A photo that says it all – Evelyn Ebrey beside a standard shop mannequin.
Have you struggled with your size. Felt pressure to lose weight. How has that journey been for you or affected your self-worth?
Absolutely, I don’t think there were any of us women who made it through the 90s and 00s unscathed. The body image issues run deeply and in my twenties I was always trying some diet or other and obsessing about the size of various bits of my body. I was really hard on myself and so critical about things that society at the time was obsessive about like a thigh gap or flat stomach. It’s insane how we were all supposed to conform to ridiculous beauty standards perpetuated by society and popular culture, instead of celebrating what makes us unique and beautiful. Like a lot of people, I’ve been on a journey of body acceptance as I’ve gotten older and I’ve become so grateful for my body and understand that my self-worth has zero to do with my body size.
Do you have any comments about the representation of plus-size models at NZ Fashion Week?
I wasn’t sure what to expect this year, but the NZFW campaign was quite diverse and it felt like that set the tone for the event and translated onto the runway for many shows, especially as the Into the Archives show that opened the week also had diverse casting. It’s often the indigenous designers that represent lots of body sizes in a genuine way and that was the case for NZFW with the Kāhui Collective and Pacific Fusion designers having the most inclusive runways. The Future of Fashion showcase featuring emerging designers also had great casting. Overall there were 1142 looks on the runway, 125 of them (10.94%) were worn by mid-size models (size 12 – 14) and 64 of them (5.6%) were worn by plus-size models (size 16 and above). Which is pretty impressive by comparison to the Feb/March A/W 2025 shows, where of the 12,790 looks on runways at the four major fashion weeks only 81 were worn by plus-size models. That’s just 0.63%. Obviously, we’re always going to want more representation but I think NZFW is on the right track and hopefully we continue to see more curve models and diversity across the board at future fashion weeks. I’d love every designer to watch Cutting the Curve so they understand why that representation matters if they don’t already.
Kāhui Collective: Catherine Anne, New Zealand Fashion Week. Photography Radlab
What’s the most uplifting positive thing for you that’s come from the project?
It was really inspiring interviewing people like Felicity Hayward and Alex Light who are leaders in the body image space and working hard to create positive change through their platforms. I know their words, and everyone else’s in the series will resonate with viewers and hopefully create some positive change. Julia and I shared the interviewing and we had so many great conversations with our interviewees while filming that were thought-provoking and positive alongside the emotional stories. The most uplifting thing for me has been watching Isabella grow as a person over the couple of years we’ve been making this project, she has really found her voice and confidence in standing up for what she believes in and I’m excited to see where that will take her from here. It was incredibly courageous of her to share her story onscreen in such a vulnerable and raw way, and I know she learned a lot from the experience as did myself and Julia.
What has the response been to the documentary?
It’s been amazing, Cutting the Curve has really struck a chord with people, particularly women and we’ve had some beautiful feedback about what the series has meant to viewers and how much it resonates with them. We intentionally released it on the first day of NZ Fashion Week, before the shows started, as we wanted people to be thinking about the message of the series in the context of size inclusivity and representation of bigger bodies when they were watching the shows.
When I attended NZFW, I had so many people stop me to talk about it and share how important they felt the series was and some personal stories of their own body image struggles. It doesn’t matter what size you are, we have all struggled with our bodies at times, it would have been impossible to get through the last few decades of intense body scrutiny in the media and marketing without having some issues with how you look. We are reminded in advertising every single day that we are supposed to be living up to ridiculous, unrealistic beauty standards and we have definitely all internalised that in various ways.
Isabella Moore modelling Cathy Pope’s new MODA collection.
What is your message to the fashion industry – globally and in NZ?
We must keep pushing forward with size inclusivity and representation of lots of different models across the board, it’s not acceptable for things to regress now and for fashion’s renewed focus on skinny to continue. We don’t all look the same and that’s a good thing, we must all be included in how fashion shapes itself going forward. Everyone of every size must be able to access clothes that fit them at every price point. It boggles me that this hasn’t always been the case, but fatphobia has been an issue for decades and excluding people because of their size is deeply problematic.
What are you most proud of about the doco?
I love how honest and thoughtful it is. This is what things are really like in fashion at the moment for plus size models. And I’m so grateful that the people we interviewed, especially Isabella, opened themselves up and were vulnerable and candid with us. The result is something that’s really powerful and I hope it helps create some genuine, positive change. It looks and feels authentic because it is and I’m so proud of that. I love hearing from people who the series has resonated with and my hope is that many people see it and understand it’s message as that’s the way that we go forward and make things better.
Evelyn Ebrey with Isabella Moore at the London screening of Cutting the Curve at Central Saint Martins.
Photography Mariam Gomez
WATCH Cutting the Curve HERE.
Directed and produced by award-winning documentary director Julia Parnell of Notable Pictures. Commissioned and funded by RNZ, and created with producer Evelyn Ebrey, creative producer Sammy Salsa, and creative consultant Dan Ahwa.
