Supermodel Emme, who is a plus-size model at Ford Models, is the host of E! Entertainment's Fashion Emergency -- a show that offers fashion advice and makeovers.ASSOCIATED PRESS

Plus-size is ideal for supermodel Emme

Web posted June 16, 1998

 Emme on the Web

By Francine Parnes
Associated Press

There's nothing abbreviated about Emme Aronson except her name.

Professionally, she's known simply as Emme (pronounced Emmy).

And she wants to show that big is beautiful.

She stands 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 185 pounds and wears a size 16 dress. She no longer diets and steps on the scale only when she visits the doctor.

As a top moneymaker in the plus-size division (size 14 and larger) at Ford Models, she commands at least $5,000 a day for her big-time beauty. She's also host of E! Entertainment's Fashion Emergency, which has celebrity hair and makeup stylists and designers, including Nicole Miller, Cynthia Rowley and Tommy Hilfiger, performing makeovers before millions of viewers.

"I know I have curves happening, and I've tried everything to become this ideal. But my body won't go there,'' she says.

In 1994, Emme posed as a reclining nude as one of People magazine's 50 most beautiful people in the world. Two years later, she graced a billboard in New York's Times Square for Liz Claiborne's plus-size line.

Today she is spokeswoman for Playtex Body Language Lingerie, has her own Web site for fan mail and runs a one-woman crusade for accepting your size right now, even if you never lose those 20 pounds.

"I think Emme is the first plus-size model to become a celebrity, a supermodel. Just by her first name, we get fan mail from all over the world,'' says Patty Sicular, who books Emme's modeling assignments.

Not that it came easy.

Well before 1997, when she was invited to speak before a congressional subcommittee about eating disorders, Emme endured her own humiliations. In her book, True Beauty, written with Daniel Paisner (Perigee, 1998, $14), she describes "the most clarifying moment of my young life.'' It was at age 12, when her stepfather drew in black marker on the parts of her body he thought she needed to reduce.

From ages 18 to 27, Emme suffered through bouts of compulsive overeating.

"I was constantly failing with diets,'' says Emme, 34. "Every single Jan. 1, I always gave myself a new one.''

Eventually, "the little light bulb went off,'' she says. "When I got my first few paychecks for modeling, I went to a therapist and was presented with the challenge: 'You can either feel bad about yourself or not.' I threw out the concept (of dieting).''

That's not all she tossed.

"I stood in my kitchen with a huge plastic bag and got rid of all the diet powder, (diet) candy bars and protein packs that I had tucked in little niches,'' she says.

Her modeling career wasn't nearly as deliberate.

"I fell into it. It wasn't a major goal,'' says Emme, who was born in Manhattan, grew up in Saudi Arabia and graduated from Syracuse University. Today she lives in a northern New Jersey suburb with her husband, ad executive Phillip Aronson.

Around 1988, a friend mentioned a new plus-size division at Ford Models.

"I was size 12 and thought, 'what the heck.' ''

Emme cites statistics that suggest her views speak to a growing segment of the population: 49 percent of adult American women -- or 35 million -- wear a size 14 or larger. By the turn of the century, that number is expected to reach 50 million.

But the fashion industry has been slow to respond. Styles for large women traditionally have been limited, although more designers are catering to them.

Ms. Sicular tells Emme: "I don't see you as a plus-size woman. I just see you as a beautiful woman.''

Emme agrees. "That's the point. The whole concept of beauty comes in different shapes and sizes. It's not Einstein's theory. It's a logical thing.''

Emme has flaunted her Botticelli proportions on the pages of Glamour, Ladies' Home Journal and the plus-size magazine, Mode. In 1997, she was named one of Glamour's 10 "Women of the Year.'' That same year, she was selected as one of Ladies' Home Journal's "Most Fascinating Women.''

"I've been in Swedish Elle and on the cover of New Woman Australia. Other countries don't have that big of a problem having someone above size 6 on their cover.''

Here, she says, "there is a glass ceiling.''