In Conversation: Emma Breschi and Nyome Nicholas-Williams on Representation, Manifestation and Making It as a Model

Make it stand out

There’s quite simply no one doing it like Emma Breschi and Nyome Nicholas-Williams. Both models trailblazing a way through an industry that has been too uniform for too long, Emma and Nyome are redefining what it means to be a supermodel.

Less about looking a certain way, they show that true beauty and superpower comes from inner strength and self-belief. In an exclusive shoot for the Polyester Dollhouse, Emma has gone behind the camera to shoot Nyome as a 90’s supermodel, showcasing her in an entirely new light.

Below, the pair chat about the shoot, what they’d like to see more of in the fashion industry and how plus-size models are pigeonholed.

Emma: Tell me first off, how did you feel, looking at the photos and everything, how does that make you feel? Seeing this shoot?

Nyome: Liberated and empowered because I’ve never seen myself in that way. I think I’m so thankful for your bravery in seeing that I could do something different, and I look like I should be or could be in a magazine.

E: I told the whole team, we’re going to redefine what it means to be a supermodel, and we did that, I think.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___

N: We did, we definitely did. I think the outcome is more than I expected, because I had wigs and I got excited, but I think the whole team literally fell together perfectly. Everyone understood your moodboard, everyone understood the vibe we were going for. It was obviously difficult being plus sized, I was like ok I can’t do these poses, and you were like yeah you can, you’re gonna!

E: I was such a drill sergeant; I was like we’re gonna make it happen! After we shot it, I was like Ny, like I hope this actually ends up opening people up to seeing you in a way that I could see you as. Bring on them editorials bitch, bring that Vogue cover! No more Vogue Italia online! We’re going for the cover!

N: We want the print hun! I’ve been manifesting British Vogue, just to be featured in it, that would be amazing.

E: I could see it for you, 100%. Ever since I’ve met you, we need it elevated. We need to showcase the different parts of you, not just the body pos, you know what I mean? I do feel because plus sized, curve, whatever – we just get pigeonholed to be a certain advocate for body positivity just based on our size, and it’s like why should I be advocating me just for being me?

N: It’s not something that we should be doing. It should just be the norm. I think that’s what needs to change a lot.

E: I also think it starts with also redefining what it is to be a supermodel because I feel like the whole thing is curve girls and plus size girls are becoming supers, but there’s so much room for more. If you think about it, back in the 80s or 90s, there were so many supermodels all doing their own thing and they were all different or whatever, but they all fit a specific mould. Now you’ve got a few plus size supers, but just a handful.

N: There need to be, like you said, more. The terms need to be redefined in what can be classed as supermodels in terms of what’s acceptable, because we can sell stuff. We can sell what you’re trying to sell, and I think that’s what’s most important.

E: What is a supermodel to you?

N: Wow. I mean, peak runway. I always think of supermodels as runway, on the cover of every magazine, all of the editorials.

E: Yeah, and I never ever associated myself with them back when I was a kid, I was just like, oh that’s a supermodel.

N: I always looked at it like that’s nothing that I could be. As a child growing up and being into fashion, I was like omg they’re incredible. It was like supermodels were other creatures that no one could get to.

E: Knowing what supermodels were in the past, what do you think would make a supermodel now?

N: I think a supermodel could be any model that knows who the fuck they are. I just feel like there should be no parameters on what a supermodel should be. First of all, I’m super! And I’m a model – put the words together, it’s me! But I just don’t think there should be parameters and gatekeeping on what that is. If you’re a working model and you work hard, you can aspire and get to that level.

E: I just want to eliminate categories in general anyway.

N: Please! Because I’m like, I’m a model. When people ask, I don’t say that I’m a plus size model. When they ask, what’s your job? I say, I’m a model. I don’t say plus size. I say I’m a model and I get the up and down. What, really? You? Or they go, oh I see it because of your face. I’m like, why?

E: What would you like to see happen for models in the industry?

N: I want transparency and I want actual representation. That word ‘representation’ is flung around so much. I need to see the reflection of society in modelling. We all wear clothes, I just need to see what brands say they represent and actually do, and aren’t doing it, because ok I’ve got a campaign, I’ve got to pick these people to pick a quota. That’s how I feel a lot of the time when I get picked for things rather than, ok I might have this person and she’s amazing.

E: Yeah, I want to see tokenism eliminated. Stop using the big girls just so you can feel like you’ve ticked a box on your diversity quota. At the end of the day, if you don’t have fat people working for you behind the scenes, you’re just using the models to hopefully look diverse. I don’t know about you, but in my experience, at the start of my career, I started noticing how a lot of brands that would say they’re curve or plus size, they have no plus size people actually designing or styling the clothes.

N: That as well. It’s the behind the scenes, it’s about who is actually doing the work. I find a lot of the time that I’m the only Black person or person of colour on set. So when brands say Black lives matter, or people of colour matter, do we? Because I’m literally the only person of colour or Black person there. This is where the work and the transparency has to come from. Taking accountability for the fact that maybe you don’t hire as many minorities as you should behind the scenes that isn’t the model. But say it with your chest and stop pretending that you’re something you’re not.

E: I just still think there’s a lot of fatphobia embedded in the industry despite how people think that plus size, curve models, models of different backgrounds or even models that are disabled, anything that doesn’t fit the standard mould of a model, I do still think there’s a lot of hidden phobias around us. I sometimes think that we’re just used to model the clothes but we don’t actually represent the brand.

N: And what they represent, because most of them don’t even know what they represent. A lot of brands follow trends and that’s what is so clear to see when a brand is just following a trend or when they’re actually about the life.

E: I feel like it’s a lot of damage control. They don’t want to get cancelled.

N: It’s a reactive measure. Rather than be proactive, it’s reactive.

E: Even with the sad reality of our shoot, even with styling, the fact that no one was able to give us, it was really hard to actually pull designer clothes for this shoot. They were like, we’ve got accessories, and it’s like they always have accessories for the big girls. 

N: But what about the clothes that we want to wear?

E: We always get naked, and they’re lucky that we’re confident enough to get naked and bare all.

N: But we shouldn’t have to. There should be clothing available if we do want to actually wear designer clothes, like yes we’re comfortable enough to be naked, but give me a chance to be able to say yes or no to clothes. We don’t even have options. 

E: Or the only options ever are a ruched or ruffled puff dress.

N: That swallows me whole!

E: Or a peplum!

N: Omg I think I’d throw up in my mouth. Peplum anything, burn them all. Or a cold shoulder – for plus women it’s a cold shoulder. 

E: Who thought, for curve big bodies, let’s give them all the gadgets and gizmos! Let’s expose their shoulders, hide their belly in this peplum tent.

N: I’m done with it, honestly.

E: What advice do you have for others that want to be a model? I usually say, don’t strive to become a model because the image of the model is being redefined now. It’s about knowing who you are so don’t let the title of the model take over.

N: Yeah, that’s who you need to be. This is going to sound cliché, but any aspiration that you have, if you want something enough, it will happen. In manifestation, the words you speak are the house you live in, so if you’re speaking things constantly that you want, you will bring them.

Intro: Jemima Skala | Photographer: Emma Breschi | Model: Nyome Nicholas-Williams | Stylist: Tola Masha | Styling Assistant: Neetu Sahota | Makeup Artist: Min Sandhu | Hair Stylist: Louis Souvestre