Australia's Next Top Model judge, Kiwi Charlotte Dawson, has slammed Australia's plus-size modelling industry, labelling it "non-existent" and declaring no curvy model wannabes will win the reality show on her watch.
Charlotte dealt the blow to aspiring plus-size models as hundreds of teenage girls crowded into a Melbourne shopping centre to audition for the sixth series of the show.
"There is no market for plus-size models in Australia.... it would be tokenism to put a plus-size girl through just for the sake of it," Charlotte told media.
Charlotte said despite the recent shift in the media towards positive coverage of plus-size models the fashion industry in Australia had still not caught up.
"I would like someone to name a plus-size model in Australia because I can't," she said.
"We could have a plus-size model win the competition and she would end up doing catalogues for Target."
Charlotte said last year's winner on the Aussie show, Tahnee Atkinson, who was billed as "full-figured" and "curvaceous" despite being only a size 10, was the perfect size for the global fashion industry.
"I think the industry internationally has had enough of the really skinny, scrawny models... you couldn't call Tahnee curvy, she's just a normal, healthy girl," she said.
Despite Charlotte's objections to plus-size models — who generally measure from size 14 upwards — the judge said there was one larger girl who made it through to the second stage of the Sydney auditions last week.
"She would have been a size 14 top and 16 bottom ... she was one of those beautiful girls who light up the room," she said.
But Charlotte said it would still be a mistake to select a plus-size model for one of the final contestants.
"You can't change the industry overnight, there is just not enough work for them in Australia," she said.
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