Sports Illustrate Swimsuit Issue Is an Ode to Curvy Women

Sports Illustrate  Swimsuit Issue Is an Ode to Curvy Women

Plus-size model Denise Bidot appeared in an ad in Sports Illustrated‘s Swimsuit issue, stretch marks and all. (Photo: Getty Images)

More

The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is a yearly nod to the leggy, thin supermodels of the moment, but this year, the magazine is straying from its typical formula by featuring plus-size models.

While it’s business as usual on the outside — SI veteran and self-proclaimed curvy girl Kate Upton graces all three covers — the inside pages are a groundbreaking push for body diversity. First, in an advertisement for plus-size clothing company Lane Bryant, model Denise Bidot, 30, poses in a bikini from the brand’s Cacique Swim line, bearing stretch marks on her stomach and an IDGAF look on her face.

“It’s amazing to be a part of the change that’s helping women see once and for all that nobody is perfect,” Bidot wrote about her unretouched ad on Instagram. “We can still be beautiful in spite of our imperfections. It’s time we celebrate each other and learn to love the skin we are in.”

Plus-size model Ashley Graham (who currently graces Vogue’s March cover) stars in a campaign for Swimsuits for All that’s also on the inside pages of the SI issue. The ad shows Graham and a group of nonmodel pals, burning up the town of San Juan, Puerto Rico.