Lorraine Duran: "I have come out of the closet without any problem, I am 1.76 and weigh 74 kilos"

Difficult task to interview in times of offended people lorraine durnthe curvy model [pasemos de momento del anglicismo curvy] most famous in Spain. ‘Deo gratias’ she is a young Feliciana who takes zero point at the things that are said about her. On the contrary, he is grateful.

to their 29 years oldis Seville She is a disused beauty, one more millennial with the peculiarity that she has made history in the world of fashion: She is the first mannequin of her size (1.76 m, 74 kg) to participate in a Victoria’s Secret campaign and also the first of her weight to win the L’Oral Award for Best Model at Madrid Fashion Week.

We chatted with her a few days after the premiere of ‘Cerdita’, Carlota Pereda’s award-winning film. A gore vision about bullying that stirs up the debate of the fatphobia. Lorena has not seen the film and her life has nothing to do with that of the protagonist, but she controls the subject like no one else. We open melon

Much is said about fat people but little about heavy people. Aren’t you tired of being asked so much about your weight?

Yes… I fight for models like me to have a place in fashion, but I don’t like being pigeonholed. Why do they call me Lorena, the curvy model, and not just the model?

You’re curvy, not plus size then…

Yes, well, in Spain. In other countries I’m not even curvy, but in between. It’s a concept invented in the US: you don’t get to be curvy, because you’re a size 38-40, but you’re not standard either.

Wow, what a label…

Yes, society gets confused by so much terminology.

Besides, we always use it in English. Saying fat in Spanish sounds stronger.

It doesn’t bother me at all to be told that I’m chubby or that I’m thick…

You have used the diminutive, chubby, and the thick word. It seems that only one can call oneself fat.

Yeah, it sounds aggressive. You can only say it to someone you love very much. To your mother, to your sister….

Lorena Durn: an autumn of fashion and impact

If you were a normative model, do you think you would have been as successful?

Well, I would have had more competition. Yes, having curves benefits me in this case.

At what point do you make a virtue of necessity?

Since I can reason I want to be a model. I was thin, but due to a health problem my body changed completely. I had an emergency operation at the age of 15 for an ovarian torsion. The treatment was completed with hormones. I went from a size 36 to a 44 in months. I became another person, my skin cracked… But I was lucky, I have always been strong-minded and accepted my situation. I saw the same person but with a different size. Fortunately, I did not suffer from any eating disorder… I am very stubborn and did not give up my efforts.

So curvy fever already exists?

I didn’t know her. In 2010, at 17, I was already doing flamenco parades and my current booker signed me: The curvy phenomenon is here to stay, he told me. He told me about body positive and I didn’t understand anything…

Lorena’s career took off then and today she has worked with brands since El Corte Ingls a Violeta by Mangogoing by Walmart, Zalando, Intimissimi, Asos… In almost all countries it has a representative, although its booker is in Barcelona, ​​at the Miah Management agency, its discoverers. He now lives on horseback between Madrid and New York and it rains campaigns.

I can’t think of anyone better than you to parade flamenco fashion. No one imagines Kate Moss in a gypsy outfit.

Well, you don’t know the conflict of the first years, they let me go a lot about Oh, how beautiful you are…, but how fat you are. They told my mother: If your daughter doesn’t lose x kilos, she doesn’t parade. The good thing is that neither she nor I am affected by it. We laughed and thought that somewhere there would be a yes for me.

I see that you have been educated in self-confidence. Did you really not go on a diet?

I never did it. I understood that she was like this because of the hormones she was taking. It was a health issue. He wasn’t going to give up that medicine he needed for cosmetic reasons.

Have you ever felt invaded by being so exuberant?

Yes, with looks… Especially from women, who are the ones who judge the most.

We are the most fatphobic.

Definitely. The harshest comments are from woman to woman. It’s sad, we have to support each other…

Our Ashley Graham, in any case, ignores what they will say. She says that she dresses as she gets up. That her mother and her sister are also beautiful and big women, that hers is genetic. Her strong points, she thinks, are her eyes and her mouth. Her features more Latin. In the US she has broken corduroy. When my booker sent me an email telling me that I had the Victoria’s Secret casting call, I thought I had the wrong girl. Who has not dreamed of putting on those wings! I have been part of the diversity campaign. We haven’t paraded curvies yet but little things are moving.

Do you think that brands like Victoria’s Secret choose curvy models because it is more politically correct or because they sell more?

They sell more. I don’t feel fee. Their stores are a fantasy, before I couldn’t fit any bra and now there are sizes from XS to XXXL.

There are those who consider their super-macho parade.

They have made lingerie passes all their lives, right? Never mind, it’s natural.

Have you ever dieted to gain weight?

I have never been on a diet in my life, but at some points in my career I have been told to eat more, eat more, eat more.

Really? your agents?

Yes, to aspire to other types of campaigns or parades. I refuse. I’m not going to get fat for anyone. It’s as aggressive as asking someone to lose weight.

Do you take care of yourself anyway?

I follow a healthy diet, but if one day I have to binge on chocolate, I give it to myself. I play sports when the weather allows me.

Curves are one thing and girls are another.

Yes, you have to be toned.

Clarified: curvy is not the same as soft. But are there curvy male models?

Yes, in Germany there are some men classified like that. But they are strong, not flaccid.

There are those who denounce that the plus size go from overweight to obesity and are unhealthy.

I am against both anorexia and obesity. Overweight is multifactorial, although it is adjusted to a few numbers, to the body mass index… but who has to determine it is a doctor.

Not a fatphobic hater.

That’s it. What should not be done are campaigns with people with foodborne illnesses.

You’re a lab technician by training, but at this rate psychology…

Yes, yes…. My work is double, because I raise self-esteem in women who don’t look good with a few extra kilos or the color of their skin, insecure girls… I really like helping people.

You empathize a lot but you have never been a victim of bullying due to fatphobia, luckily.

I have not suffered it in my flesh but I have in someone close to me, children are very evil.

Doesn’t change have to start with ourselves? It costs more to say our weight than our age. And, taken to the limit, there are women who prefer to be called whores rather than fat.

S. I’ve come out of the closet in that without a problem: I’m 1.76 and weigh 74 kilos. I don’t understand why people get offended when asked.

In the end I have been very heavy and I have asked you too much about the weight. What other concerns do you have apart from modeling?

I would like to create my own fashion brand or get a cosmetic campaign, or walk the runway in Rihanna’s lingerie: that’s where there is diversity. A trans girl, a girl with a missing leg…