Curve and plus is one of the few genuinely growing segments in modeling, driven by retail brands broadening their size ranges and by advertising that finally casts closer to the actual customer. It is also poorly explained, which leaves a lot of people who would be signable submitting to the wrong boards.
This is how it works from the agency side.
Curve, Plus, or Neither: The Terminology
Agencies use "curve" and "plus" fairly interchangeably, though many now prefer curve. What matters practically is that it is a separate board with its own client base, its own measurement expectations, and often its own bookers within the agency.
There is also a sizing gap worth knowing about: models between roughly US 6 and 10 sometimes fall between boards — too large for straight-size sample fittings, not large enough for a curve board built around 12 to 16. This is a real and frustrating gap, and the honest answer is that commercial work is usually the better target if you land in it.
What Curve Boards Actually Want
Measurements
Broadly, curve boards work from around US size 8 up to 18, with the densest client demand between 10 and 16. That range exists for the same reason the fashion range does: it tracks the sample sizes brands actually produce.
Height splits by the type of work:
- High fashion and editorial curve — generally 5'8" and above, similar to straight-size fashion boards.
- Commercial curve — retail, catalogue, advertising. Height is largely irrelevant, and this is where the volume of paid work is.
Proportion over size
Curve bookers pay close attention to proportion and how garments fall, because their clients are selling fit as much as style. Well-proportioned at size 16 is a far easier sell than a measurement set that garments hang awkwardly on at any size.
Accurate numbers
Send bust, waist, hips, dress size, and height, measured properly rather than estimated from what you buy. Curve sizing varies enormously between brands, so your actual measurements matter more than your label size.
How to Submit
The format is the same as any other board: four to six phone photos in daylight against a plain wall, front, side, back, one smiling, one neutral, no makeup or retouching, plus a close-up.
The one meaningful difference is clothing. Wear something fitted that shows your genuine shape — not oversized or draped. A curve booker cannot assess proportion through a loose dress, and a submission that obscures your shape reads as a submission from someone uncomfortable with it.
Everything else in our guide to what agencies look for applies unchanged.
Finding Agencies With a Curve Board
Not every agency runs one. Before submitting, check the agency's site for a curve, plus, or sometimes "C" division. Most major agencies now have one, and there are specialist agencies representing curve models exclusively.
The verification rules do not change: commission-based, traceable clients, models on the board who visibly work, a real office. Our guide to finding a real agency near you covers the full checklist, and it applies here exactly as it does anywhere else.
The Only Money Rule That Matters
A legitimate modeling agency earns a commission on work you book. That is the whole business model, and it is why a real agency has no reason to charge you anything to sign.
Anything that inverts that — an upfront fee, a mandatory shoot with their photographer at your expense, a paid "portfolio package", a fee to appear on their website, a charge for a "screen test" — is a business that makes money from aspiring models rather than from clients. Some of these are outright scams. Others are legal but useless. Neither is representation.
The test is simple: does this company make money when I work, or does it make money whether or not I ever work? We put real numbers to it in what it actually costs to become a model.
The Work Itself
Commercial and retail dominate: catalogue, e-commerce, national advertising, lifestyle brands, activewear and swim. Editorial curve work exists and is growing, but as with straight-size fashion, editorial pays less than commercial and functions largely as portfolio and profile building.
Fit modeling is a genuinely under-discussed adjacent path. Brands need models with consistent, specific measurements to fit garments during development, and it is steady, well-paid, repeat work that almost nobody outside the industry knows exists.
Building Your Book
Once signed, your agency will guide testing to build a portfolio that shows range: clean beauty, commercial lifestyle, something with movement, and at least one shot that shows your shape honestly rather than styled around it. Our guide to building a modeling portfolio covers the structure, and the principles are identical across boards.
Start Here
Measure yourself accurately, shoot honest digitals in fitted clothing, shortlist agencies that actually run a curve board, and learn how castings work before you are in one. Our free runway masterclass covers the casting-room craft in six lessons, taught by a working fashion week producer, at no cost.
