Model Jean Campbell reveals she was deemed ‘too big’ for major luxury brand

A model who has worked for the likes of Burberry and Louis Vuitton has revealed she was rejected by a major luxury brand for being “too big”.

A model who has worked for the likes of Burberry, Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen has revealed she was rejected by a major luxury brand for being “too big”.

Lady Jean Campbell, the daughter of the Earl of Cawdor Colin Campbell and former British Vogue editor Lady Isabella Stanhope, shared a photo of herself earlier this week to Instagram, wearing underwear and a pair of heels.

“Here’s a photo of me late at night in my underwear having been cancelled from a job by a huge brand for being ‘TOO BIG’,” the 25-year-old wrote in the accompanying caption.

“At the time it made me feel pretty worthless. I think the idea that this is ‘too big’ is shocking to say the least. But looking back I feel compassion for how I felt as I believed it was coming from people with such vision and influence.

“Today I know how unhealthy and dysfunctional that is. Now I can say with confidence that there is no greater beauty than love. The sadness in my eyes is a result of how disempowered this made me feel and how reductive it is to measure ‘beauty’ by size. It’s an inside job no matter what size you are.”

‘At the time it made me feel pretty worthless.’ Picture: Instagram

Expanding on her post in a piece for British Vogue today, Campbell said the photo was “taken late at night to prove my size to a well-known luxury brand, who were trying to cancel the exclusive they had with me at the last minute”.

“Despite having recently undergone invasive hip surgery in which the left side of my pelvis was broken in three places, readjusted, and fixed in place by three six-inch screws, my measurements were unchanged,” she wrote.

“And yet, here was a respected brand telling me otherwise – telling me that I was not thin enough, not good enough to wear their clothes.”

Campbell had undergone invasive hip surgery prior to the photo being taken. Picture: Instagram

‘I would focus on all the things that I thought were ‘wrong’ with me.’ Picture: Instagram

Campbell added that in the past, she would “focus on all the things that I thought were ‘wrong’ about me and the easiest thing to pick on, in my case, was my appearance”.

“After all, as a model, you are taught that your face and your body add up to the sum of your worth. So, when some of the most influential and powerful names in the industry are telling you there is something wrong with how you look, how are you supposed to feel?”

Fellow models and friends of Campbell’s took to the comments to voice their support.

“Thank you Jeanie,” British model Adwoa Aboah wrote. “I can’t tell you how many people including myself needed this.”

“Thank you for voicing this! It’s insane what people in the industry say about model’s bodies and expect us to not internalise it somehow,” Romanian model Andreea Diaconu commented.

“My newest favourite one is ‘she’s a healthy girl’ with ‘healthy’ used as a derogatory term. Tells a lot about where we are as an industry if we fetishise eating disorders and use ‘healthy’ as a slur.

“I fear the Ozempic era is just going to make this worse, so thank you again for speaking about this so beautifully.”

Originally published as Model Jean Campbell reveals she was deemed ‘too big’ for major luxury brand