Key Insights

• Background: Liris Crosse is a prominent figure in the plus size fashion industry.
• Experience: She reflects on her journey and the challenges faced over two decades.
• Advocacy: Liris emphasizes the importance of creating opportunities for future generations.
• Legacy: She aims to be remembered as a disruptor who used her voice for change.

There’s a reason I start every interview the same way in my head before I even hit record: who deserves this spotlight, and am I the right person to hold it up to the light? With Liris Crosse, the answer showed up before I finished typing the invite. I’m Jerilyn Harper, Digital Content Contributor here at The Curvy Fashionista, and I’ve spent my career sitting at the intersection of plus size culture and the brands, affiliates, and storytelling that move it forward.

I came up watching the same magazines Liris was breaking into. I know the difference between a brand that tokenizes a fuller body and one that actually designs for it, because I’ve covered both. That’s the lens I brought into this conversation, and it’s why TCF trusted me to sit across from a woman the industry calls “The Body” and ask her the questions plus size women have been asking for twenty years.

So let’s talk about her. Model. Actress. Author. Project Runway champion. The woman behind the plus size boot camp quietly building the next generation of girls who will never know a runway without her in it. I’m talking about the one, the only, Liris Crosse. And baby, the resume is resumeing.

Sleepy, Excited, and Twenty Years Deep

I asked Liris Crosse to give me two words for how she was feeling walking into our conversation. No warm-up, no softening it.

“Sleepy but excited,” she said.

Honestly? Real. That’s what two decades of pioneering an entire lane of an industry that didn’t want you in it looks like up close. Not a highlight reel. A woman who is tired and still showing up, because the work isn’t finished and she knows it.

I wanted to know what that work actually cost her, so I asked whether a new generation of plus size models who never had to fight her battles makes her struggle feel smaller, or like she actually won.

“I definitely don’t think it makes me feel less important that they may not have to go through some of the similar issues that I’ve had to go through, because the point of me advocating is so I could help create change so they wouldn’t have to go through that,” she told me. “Although there are a lot of things that are still very much the same. I feel like sometimes our industry takes ten steps forward and then like eight steps back. And it can be disheartening, but my thing is if you’re just committed to change and committed to the cause, you just have to stay steadfast.”

Ten steps forward, eight steps back. Write that on a sticky note and put it somewhere you’ll see it.

Before She Was “The Body,” She Was the Only One in the Room

Liris broke in at a time when you could count the plus size divisions in this industry on one hand. She was part of the very first Lane Bryant lingerie show. She remembers when that commercial got banned, not because it was inappropriate, but because the woman in it was fuller.

“We have Victoria’s Secret commercials, the show, you know, the same thing, but it was literally because just the woman was fuller,” she said.

Sit with that for a second. Same lace. Same lighting. The only difference was the body wearing it, and that was enough to get it pulled.

She started to understand that her career meant something bigger than her own bookings early, back when she landed Seventeen Magazine as a young model with, in her words, “a little bit more meat on her bones.”

“Whether it was I went back home to Baltimore and I ran into somebody at the grocery store, or I was walking down the street in New York City and someone said, oh my gosh, I saw you in Seventeen magazine, it made me feel so good because I saw somebody who looked more like me,” she said. “That’s when I really started to know that this is bigger than me.”

The Project Runway Moment She Wasn’t Going to Let Slide

We had to talk about episode seven. If you saw it, you remember the designer, the lazy execution, and Liris publicly refusing to swallow it for the sake of good TV. I asked her the question I think a lot of us have been sitting on: when does “I don’t know how to design for her body” stop being an excuse and start being a failure of imagination?

Her answer did not miss.

“Any designer that’s coming on Project Runway, plus and curve models have been here to stay since season sixteen,” she said. “If that is the case, you should do your practice before you come on the show so you know how to make something for fuller bodies. You should do your research. Social media is in the palm of your hand. Top retailers, why aren’t you looking at Eloquii to see the pieces that they’re selling? Like, you have to do your due diligence.”

Then she went for the jugular, and I was here for every word of it.

“If sixty-two percent of the women in the United States wear a size fourteen or sixteen and you’re not designing for them, then you’re literally leaving money on the table. It’s literally preposterous for you to do that. Like why would you do that?” she said. “I also feel like if you’re calling yourself a designer you should be able to design for all sizes.

It’s like some of the makeup artists or hairstylists we deal with in this industry who call themselves hairstylists but don’t know how to do black hair or don’t know how to do Latino hair. Are you really a hairstylist? Are you really a makeup artist if you can’t color match all these different skin tones? Step your game up.”

I told her she packaged that beautifully because she did. That’s not a complaint. That’s a mic drop with receipts.

Season sixteen—the season she won—changed more than her own trajectory. “The revolution was televised on that season,” she said. “Literally after that you saw all this diversity on the runway. I think our season was a big catalyst for that—huge. Beyond how it may have benefited me—it’s really how it benefited culture—how it benefited fashion—how it benefited plus size women—and that felt amazing.”

Redefining Sexy On Her Own Terms

Before there was a plus size Ashley Graham era normalizing curves as sexy there was Liris Crosse becoming a video vixen and earning the nickname “the Naomi of plus.” She helped pioneer fuller bodies showing up in music video leads at a time when that lane simply did not exist for women who looked like her.

“It felt good to be referred to as ‘the body’ or ‘the Naomi of plus’ because it showed that you could just have a fuller body and still be deemed sexy and beautiful,” she said. “I’ve always felt as a black woman my curves and my body have always been appreciated or even deemed sexy. So it was nice to then have it be accepted more mainstream as well.”

She traces one of her “I made it” moments straight to a pair of music videos. “It was probably the Jay-Z Do It Again video and it was Beanie Man Who Am I video,” she told me. “I had a short haircut at that time and wore this really sexy kind of sheer dress that showed my body in such a beautiful light.

Even now she’s still calling out the industry for what it gets wrong when styling fuller bodies as desirable instead of just covered up. “I think sometimes designers aren’t putting them in something flirty or sexy,” she said. “It’s just okay we have this token plus model let’s put her in this cover-up.

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Some of them just having a wrap dress or basic bodycon dress—and it’s like yeah—but I see what you created for this other size! This design has layers and dimensions to it—that’s where they miss out on really showing a strong point of view design-wise.”

Handing Down The Keys Instead Of Guarding The Door

Twenty years in—a lot of pioneers plant their flag and never move. I wanted to know what made Liris decide to open doors for next generation instead of guarding them.

“Even I had to learn what’s meant for me is meant for me,” she said. “That’s why I can pass on castings that I hear about to other models—that’s why I can give tips and knowledge because it’s not going change what is meant for me.

If it’s meant for me to book that job—if it’s meant for me to be in that space—then nothing can stop it—not another model—not their pictures—not their walk—not their body—nothing can stop if I’m supposed to be part of it! And that frees me up really try my best help others.”

That philosophy now lives inside plus size model boot camp she runs where she trains next wave girls walk through doors kicked down by her.
One student—a model named Sean—recently signed with State Management—and Liris has feeling she’ll be popping up somewhere this New York Fashion Week.

But don’t mistake generosity self-erasure.
Liris was clear about too.
“I have also felt like didn’t do all this hard work not also reap benefits,” she said.
“That’s part reason why still modeling.
One—I love modeling—it is first love.
And two—I’ve done lot work space still want reap benefits some these doors opened.”

From The Runway To The Red Carpet

Liris not slowing down admire legacy built.
She currently appearing season twenty-two Project Runway—walking three shows New York Fashion Week—and chasing down casting People’s Runway Show between all.
On top of she’s booked shot three feature films year—with fourth already calendar—plus short films making festival circuit.

“I’m just praying hopefully soon runways will press junkets TV shows films,” she said.
“I want bring all energy red carpet TV shows films.
I bit acting bug I’m just pretty obsessed now.”

Modeling trained chase perfect.
Acting teaching something different.

“I think modeling also era came made lot perfectionists,” she said.
“With acting—you have abandon perfectionist just be vulnerable live character.
didn’t realize tough on myself.”

That lesson didn’t stay acting studio.
It’s now part what teaches boot camp models.
“The biggest thing telling them have grace,” said.
“We have show ourselves lot more grace than do.
You’re not going always get right—and that’s okay.
fact made here half issue.
fact got casting big deal—so give yourself some grace.”

For Anyone Told Stay Their Lane

I asked what tells people branching out while everyone around insists pick one thing stick.
What followed less answer more sermon—and mean highest compliment.

“I say color outside lines,” said.
“We now live world where don’t have do things way parents did.
They found job stayed there twenty-five thirty years—that’s not society now.
believe God gives us talents skills we have.
So why pigeonhole yourself just one area?
Explore couple things—or explore all see what sticks.
Have fun.”