Over the past week or so, social media’s been abuzz about Lottie Moss (half sister of 90s supermodel, Kate Moss) signing with Storm, a modelling agency.  Lottie, who is 16 years old, is 5’5″, a pretty average height.  However, that’s absolutely short for a model (her waist is a bit bigger than most models as well, at 26″).  A fashion model, that is.  And yes, comments are abound online about how “short” she is.  However, modelling isn’t only about fashion, and as I’ve written before, anything outside of fashion shouldn’t require that a model be tall (and I think it’s debatable even when it DOES come to clothing) – especially if you have a famous relative.

Screenshot of Lottie Moss’s profile at Storm Models

Modelling is beyond what one sees on the runway or in pages of magazines.  People you see in print ads are models.  These models aren’t necessarily tall.  In fact, I’ve seen rosters at commercial agencies, and most are not runway height – or weight, for that matter.  Why?  Because sometimes, an a company might call for a middle aged woman who, you know, looks like she’s the mother of a teenager for a laundry detergent ad.  We don’t need (or want) to see a 5’11”, size 0 woman because middle aged moms aren’t usually size 0.  The person ending up with the job would probably be closer to size eight or 10 (still smaller than what many might call average, but definitely NOT runway looking) and probably around 5’6″.  This is more common.  In fact, Lottie’s height and measurements are fairly common for a thin girl her age and height.

Sure, Storm is considered a “fashion” agency, but it doesn’t mean that it can’t place models on, say, beauty-related jobs.  As I’ve said before, her height shouldn’t matter, especially if people want to see more diverse sizes.  Besides, being Kate Moss’s half sister certainly helps!