Here’s the first ever plus-size runway show in Australia

The challenge every season, to get one, two or three models over a size 12 onto a fashion week runway, is enormous," she said on the phone from Sydney. "The amount of time it takes, the amount of convincing you have to do -- it's just a real battle.

So Bonner, whose agency Bella Management has around 60 fuller-figured models on its books, took matters into her own hands: She organized the event's first ever runway show dedicated exclusively to plus-size brands.

With recent editions of Australian Fashion Week criticized for their lack of inclusive casting (after last year's event, plus-size model Kate Wasley wrote on Instagram ex that diversity had been "non-existent" and urged the country to "catch up"), organizers were receptive to the idea, Bonner said. She invited six local labels that design clothes for women sized 12 to 26 -- equivalent to 8 to 22 in US sizes -- to participate in a show dubbed