James Corbin is changing the face (and body) of men’s fashion | Benjamin Hampson
(Picture: James Corbin is changing the face (and body) of men’s fashion | Benjamin Hampson)Oh, James Corbin. The 23-year-old boy from Brixton, a rising star in men’s modelling with a disarmingly cherubic mien and the kind of big, beautiful eyes that strike you like deep pools of joy and wisdom, is without doubt the most beautiful person I’ve ever met in real life — even if I found myself singing his name to the Jeremy Corbyn x Seven Nation Army mash-up. Perhaps it is all that revolutionary zeal: at 6ft 1in, with a pout that could launch an Ancient Greek armada, young Corbin is making waves as one of the few — indeed, only — plus-size male models in the luxury fashion game. ‘I genuinely want change,’ says Corbin, sitting at home in Kensal Rise. ‘I just want to have the full experience that a normal model would get and I feel like I deserve that. Plus-size people deserve that and we don’t deserve to feel that we’ve been robbed of those experiences. I really want to enjoy what I do because I love it.’ It’s about damn time.
Where are all the plus-size male models? Ashley Graham, the first ‘curve’ female supermodel, can earn $5.5m (£4.75m) in a year, making her a trailblazer for fellow plus-size supes Tess Holliday, Yumi Nu and Precious Lee. Yet the body-positivity movement has hardly moved a whisker in the menswear world. True, there’s hirsute New Yorker Zach Miko, 32, the face of IMG Models’ ‘Brawn’ division, who burst on to the scene in 2016 at 6ft 6in with a 40in waist, regularly scooping the likes of glossy Dolce & Gabbana shoots. There’s agency Bridge’s Raul Samuel, 6ft with a 49in chest and 44in waist, whom you may remember being plastered all over the Tube in BoohooMAN campaigns.
