'Fat backlash' on the catwalk

The image police were told to stay at home when some of America's leading larger ladies took to the catwalk.

As part of the "fat backlash" sweeping the US, TV star Kelly Osbourne and comedienne Roseanne Barr led a cast of plus-size lingerie models in a special fashion show in Manhattan.

Aside from the bigger breasts and ampler bottoms on display, it was no different from any other fashion show: the garments were daringly skimpy and the audience was rapt in admiration.

Osbourne wore a skin-tight black corset and bondage-style leather belt. As the star of the world's most popular fly on the wall TV show, she seemed to have lost her inhibitions about how she appears in the public gaze. However, Barr started in a near see-through red nightgown and then changed to a more modest outfit of capri pants, black camisole and top hat.

Mia Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith frontman Steve Tyler and sister of Liv, showed the least inhibitions of all at the Lane Bryant lingerie collection. The show suggested further evidence that American women are rebelling against conventional beauty images.