Seynabou Cissé, Iskra Lawrence, Alessandra Garcia Lorido, Yvonne Simone, and Solange van Doornare powerful, ambitious, and of course, beautiful. But unlike the group that inspired the original supermodel phenomenon of the 1980s and 90s, the new crop are all a size 12 and above. They represent Senegal, England, and the Oneida Nation. They’re immigrants and mixed race. They’re accidental activists and eating-disorder-awareness advocates. They have professional backgrounds in tech and health sciences. Together they’re ascending not just as curve models, but as supermodels for a new age. The New Supers, if you will.

Iskra is part of the new Lounge collective campaign by Lounge Underwear. She’s joined by Romee Strijd, Elsa Hosk, Tabria Majors, Eva Apio, La’Tecia Thomas, Camila Coelho and Jasmine Tookes.
You can shop the collection here!
Photoshoots > 2022 > Lounge Underwear

Iskra is modelling for SHEIN. View the images down below. I’ll try to post all her looks over on my Instagrams @iskracloset + @iskradaily.
Photoshoots > 2020 > Shein – Fall 2020

Iskra is part of the new International Women’s Day campaign of The Prince’s Trust & L’Oreal. She’s joined by Geri Horner, Helen Mirren, Denis Lewis and Neelam Gill.
Photoshoots > 2020 > The Prince’s Trust & L’Oreal – International Women’s Day
SELF-WORTH. WORTH SHARING.
Young women are facing their own additional obstacles with confidence levels, self-belief and self-worth alarmingly low. We worked with The Prince’s Trust to survey over 3000 young people and found that:
– 40% of young women aged 16-25 say they don’t believe in themselves
– Half of all UK young women aged 11-25 feel like they are not being listened to (50%)
– Over half (52%) of young women aged 11-25 say that having a mentor in their life would make them feel more confident about their future
That’s why we’re putting a spotlight on The Prince’s Trust’s Women Supporting Women initiative, connecting young women to women who will support them in transforming self-doubt to self-worth.
What is Women Supporting Women?
The Women Supporting Women initiative empowers young women in challenging circumstances by sharing knowledge, advice and support, helping them to move forward with renewed confidence into a job, training, education or to start a business.
Because self-worth is worth sharing.

Iskra is on the digital cover of Pulse Spikes’ issue No. 16. Read her interview down below:
Photoshoots > 2020 > Pulse Spikes – Issue No. 16
She is serving realness, curves and elegance included. You have probably seen Iskra Lawrence on the #AerieREAL campaign, spreading a message of self-love. Whether it is tummy rolls, body hair, birthmarks, or tattoos, she believes everybody should be celebrated for who they are and not by how they look. Iskra Lawrence is sweeping the social media scene with unretouched photos, unafraid to speak up about body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and the raw definition of self-love. Some people call it controversial, others call it courage. No matter what you cannot deny that she is making an impact on so many people today. Iskra chats about her journey to self-love in our 16th issue.
Where did your journey as a body-positive model start?
I’ve been modeling for 15 years. I started out in the UK, and initially, there weren’t a lot of girls my size back then. I didn’t fit into a lot of sample sizing. I did enter a competition, and I didn’t win. But I did get scouted. Unfortunately, as I said, I didn’t fit into a lot of sample sizing and got body-shamed when I was 14 and 15 years old. I struggled, and my agency really tried to make my waist smaller but couldn’t. It was my body shape, and I had always been a bit curvier. They told me if I couldn’t hit their measurements, I wouldn’t be a successful model. It got stuck in my head, and I dropped from the agency. I tried about ten other agencies, and no one would take me. All of their excuses came back to my size and me being too curvy. I took it personally and really set out to change myself but didn’t know how to do so in a healthy way.So some modeling agencies said you were too big, and plus-size agencies said you were too small. How did you deal with these body categories? How did the power of unretouched photos come to you?
After a bit, I started carving out a niche of people just loving themselves for who they are at their healthiest size instead of trying to fit into either category. I ended up working with a bunch of my close friends, and I created a company called Model Kind. We created a charity calendar to go towards fighting cervical cancer. During that time, I gathered a group of my friends for the calendar, and no one looked alike. I hadn’t seen anything like it. When the photographer said he was going to retouch some of the photos, I told him not to because everyone looked beautiful. That really uncovered my love for no retouching and explaining how nearly every image we consume has been retouched. Retouching is the standard. Most women think they need to have flawless skin and have their hair perfectly sleek. It’s an unattainable way for us to be because Photoshop is everywhere.
Read more on pulsespikes.com

Iskra is back with Persona and modeling for their spring/summer 2020 collection.
Photoshoots > 2020 > Persona by Marina Rinaldi – Spring/Summer 2020

Iskra is our original #AerieREAL Role Model, a Self-Care Activist, NEDA Ambassador, and soon-to-be mama! As a pioneer in the body confidence movement and a strong advocate for mental health and wellness, Iskra’s mission is to inspire everyone to love their REAL selves, inside and out.
If you know Aerie, you know Iskra. She’s been part of the fam since the early days of #AerieREAL, and we’ve been so proud to support this changemaker as she inspires and empowers everyone she meets.
source: aerie
Photoshoots > 2020 > Aerie Real – Role Models

I’m back from holiday & fuly updated the gallery.
Events > 2019 > At the Color Factory Pop Up Museum in NYC – August 30th 2019
Candids > 2019 > At Mountain Creek Water Park in New Jersey – September 2nd 2019
Photoshoots > 2019 > Aerie 2019

Iskra is on the cover of Glamour’s Digital issue for September 2019. Read the interview down below & make sure to check out the pictures in the gallery!
Photoshoots > 2019 > Glamour Digital Cover – September 2019
I met these women on a 100-degree day this July in New York City’s Chinatown, a bustling, historic neighborhood where—appropriately—old meets new. It was one of the hottest days of the summer, yet all five arrived energized and ready to work. Each had agreed to pose for Glamour’s September cover, the marquee piece of a larger package which explores what it’s like to be a plus-size woman during this particular cultural moment.
If you’re not already familiar with their names, you’ve likely seen their faces: Garcia Lorido has walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana, appeared in a campaign for fellow model Emily Ratajkowski’s body-conscious essentials line Inamorata, and is featured front and center in Gap’s fall 2019 denim commercials. Cissé landed a Sephora campaignand a spot on Christian Siriano’s runway. Simone went from America’s Next Top Model to Chromat’s New York Fashion Week show. Van Doorn has modeled Rihanna’s lingerie line, Savage x Fenty, and appeared in a lookbook for designer Tanya Taylor. And Lawrence, having been featured in several inclusive campaigns—including a key spot as one of AerieREAL’s Role Models—has used her platform to advocate for awareness around diversity in fashion.
None of the five necessarily knew that curve modeling would become their lane, but it’s a space where each found a home, one where they’d not only be accepted but be celebrated, though it wasn’t always a smooth road. Lawrence, for example, tells me how, having made it to the finals of a local Faces to Watch competition at 14 years old, she felt ridiculed for not fitting into sample sizes. At a gig, she says, another model pulled her aside and told her, “Oh, you know there’s something called plus-size modeling?” Until then, she didn’t. Same for Cissé, who says “I remember typing out to my friend, ‘Oh, wow, modeling is seeming more realistic because I’m in New York and opportunities are here, but I just have to get to a size four and then I’ll think about it.’ I didn’t know that curve modeling was a thing.”
It’s not just a thing: it’s a key part of the plus-size retail industry, which is estimated to be worth $21 billion today and projected to hit more than $100 billion during the next few years due to latent demand.
How did we get here? During the last five years, the body-positivity movement found its footing, and conversations about it have been catapulted into mainstream media and retail. It’s a movement that owes thanks to Instagram style titans and moguls in the making like Gabi Fresh and Nadia Aboulhosn, and rising social media stars like size-24 La’Shaunae Steward. Thanks to greater visibility through mainstream campaigns from Target, Calvin Klein, and JC Penney. Thanks to Dietland and Shrill, two popular TV shows that featured visibly plus-size leading actresses bringing the fat experience described by authors Sarai Walker and Lindy West to life. To vocal activists sick and tired of the mockery around fat bodies. Thanks to pioneering women of color, like designer Monif C, stylist Susan Moses, and editor Madeline Figueroa Jones, who have worked in this space for decades laying the groundwork for a broader movement. And in a way thanks to that Meisel cover, because now we all know Ashley Graham’s name, we’ve seen Tess Holliday grab magazine covers, and we’ve watched Precious Lee dominate the runway.
But for all the headline-winning successes, the I’m No Angel campaigns, and the calls for increasing visibility, many women have felt, justifiably, that body positivity is exclusionary, that it exists for white women to feel OK about their average bodies, that it’s bullshit. Body positivity, at its core, isn’t just about making people feel good about themselves (though that’s a great side effect, and hopefully one that extends to all bodies). It’s also not just about fashion or justabout having a positive self-image. Body positivity is about smashing stereotypes, it’s about recognizing the innate privilege some bodies hold, and it’s about challenging long-held beliefs about what’s considered beautiful while promoting real diversity and inclusion.
In many ways, though, fashion’s slow but steady adoption of body positivity has validated the cynics: If the Meisel cover was one of the first times body positivity made its way into a high-fashion cover, one of its implied truths was that curvy was okay as long as it was a very specific type of curvy—hourglass, flat stomach, thin face, and above all, white. “White plus bodies are much more acceptable,” says Cissé. “It always kills me when I’m at a job and I’m painfully aware that I’m the token person [of color] in the room. That’s always hard.”
“I’m a size 12,” says Garcia Lorido. “I don’t represent girls that are size 22. I don’t know what that feels like, and I shouldn’t be speaking for them. I shouldn’t be representing them. I can represent myself; if they relate, if they are inspired by me, then great.”
The next logical question: Why don’t as many opportunities exist for women over a certain size? Lots of explanations have been thrown around. Some brands might not have the capital to produce samples in extended sizing, while for others there’s an insistence that “aspirational” (read “smaller”) models are what sells. Some agencies might say clients don’t book larger models so it doesn’t make sense to rep them. Casting directors could argue that agencies aren’t representing or training larger models to compete. Each could be partially responsible for how pervasive an issue this continues to be, and it echoes much of the cultural attitude toward larger bodies, both in and outside of fashion. Without a clear party to be held accountable or take the initiative to continue the evolution of inclusivity, it’s challenging to enforce change.
Lawrence understands this well and thinks her light skin, blue eyes, and acceptable curves may have given her access—“I understand that I’m not a marginalized body,” she says. “I am an accepted body type and shape and my skin color. And I hope that sometimes people will just use me as a test because they want to go further.” Now that she’s among the most sought-after—and debated—curve models, she has the leverage to ask clients to push their boundaries a little further too. “I’m trying to open the door and trying to change the system,” she says. Not just for clients she works with, but in potential future projects of her own.

The first pictures of the new Autum/Winter 2019 campaign of Persona by Marina Rinaldi were released.
Photoshoots > 2019 > Persona by Marina Rinaldi – Autum/Winter 2019