>> Lara Stone is being heralded as the beginning of a move away from prepubescent models — a rep at her agency IMG confirmed to The Cut that her size varies between a US 4 and 6, the latter "on her heavier days," which is substantial compared to the usual size 0 or 2 model. Though IMG currently calls her an "exception," agents apparently suspect a shift to fuller figures (in model terms) will happen eventually.

That said, Lara's figure has no shortage of fans — Carine Roitfeld devoted an entire issue of Vogue Paris to her, Karl Lagerfeld made her his most recent couture bride at Chanel, and she graces the August 2009 cover of W, within which Steven Klein calls her “the girl with the X-rated lips." In fact, fashion photographers love her. Bruce Weber chimes in with: "She's big, bad, and beautiful."  And Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott praise her: "The great thing about Lara is that she is naturally already such a strong character herself. She inspires us to take a better picture.”

But currying favor wasn't always so easy.  One editor-in-chief suggested that she might get her trademark gapped front teeth fixed:

“She was just wondering what we were going to do about my teeth,” Stone says, laughing, “and I thought she was talking about the fact that they are so yellow, so I told her I would quit smoking, which I still haven’t done.” Now, Stone adds, “I quite like them. It makes me different.”

And sometimes she still feels fat.

“A lot of people say it’s nice to see someone who won’t break in half when you touch them,” she says with a sigh, rolling a pack of cigarettes around in her hands. “But I am still a woman and a person, and if you’re compared and confronted with your colleagues, and they’re all half your size, you think, F---, I’m really fat! And then on other days, I’m like, Oh, I’m not that bad.” 

But in the end, she says, “I like my job.”

“When I think about my job now, it’s so easy. Because you get so much free time, you get to travel everywhere,” she says. “The people are nice and fun and easy and relaxed. You get to smoke at work. You make lots of money.” Stone pauses. “Where are you ever going to find another job where you don’t have a boss or responsibilities, really, except to get on an airplane and just show up? It’s a bit worrying.”