Plus-size male model who stars in Levi's new campaign says, 'Big guys like to look good too'
A new face has joined the ranks of plus-size male models, and he’s off to a great start with a major global campaign. For the latest Levi’s Big & Tall campaign, the brand called in recently signed U.K. model Brett Morse. Although he’s still relatively new in front of the camera, you might be familiar with him from the Olympics.
Having competed in the 2012 Summer Olympics for Team GB, Morse is best known as a professional discus thrower. But at 6 feet 3 and 271 pounds, the athlete has found a calling in representing an underrepresented group of men.
Using hashtags like #celebratemysize, Morse is outspoken about the challenges that his athletic build poses when he’s looking for suitable clothes. Although plus-size clothing has been available to women for years, Morse believes that larger men are not served well by men’s clothing companies.
“The high street and online retailers have been catering for curvy women for years, but, until now, bigger men have been missing out in the fashion stakes,” he told the Daily Record. “Big guys like to look good too and are sick of the baggy and boring styles they’ve been lumped with until now.”
According to Esquire, part of the issue is the fact that, unlike with women’s fashion, there’s no one category for men who don’t fit the mold of straight sizes. Instead, Nick Paget, senior menswear editor at trend forecasting company WGSN, told the publication that men beyond a specific build need to search through plus-size, extended size, and big-and-tall offerings to find something that works.
While men are increasingly speaking up about body positivity and the need for more inclusive sizing, Levi’s has been a good example of a brand moving in that direction. Although the denim brand still has work to do, it has continued to expand the offerings in its Big & Tall collection, to respond to customer outreach, and to broaden its representation of various body types.
Comments on the Instagram photos of the Olympian turned model’s latest campaign have all been superpositive and optimistic about Morse’s future in front of the camera. But for now, he’s reassuring fans that after an injury that kept him from Rio in 2016, he’ll be making an Olympic comeback in Tokyo in 2020.
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