Meet Xu Ruoxuan, one of six Asia-based models who shared with Tatler how they’re breaking boundaries and refusing to be limited by gender, race, sexuality, size, age, religion or ability
“Nothing is naturally beautiful,” says Ruoxin Xu—known professionally as Raw Xu—a recent graduate of Central Academy of Fine Arts in China and freelance model who has been seen on the cover of fashion magazines in the country and was included in a social media campaign for Scandinavian brand Ganni. The Zhejiang-born, Beijing-based creator promotes body positivity both in her art—her graduation work was an interactive installation titled Touch My Belly—and her modelling career.
While for years she couldn’t buy clothes that fit her from a mall, Xu says what is available both in stores and e-commerce in China is now more accommodating for people of different body shapes and sizes. “Regardless of the initial intention—whether it’s that businesses have found the gap or that consumers of larger sizes are seen—the results and changes are very optimistic,” she says. “The market now cares more about the cultural force behind the visual symbol of models.”
In case you missed it: Meet Christina Chung, the Hong Kong Mother Who Entered Modelling in Her Fifties
Beauty is a perspective: a perspective of acceptance and inclusion