Lauren Chan Reveals Thoughts on the Most Iconic SI Swim Model

Here’s a hint: she landed the magazine’s cover as a rookie in 2016.

Lauren Chan.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Lauren Chan, a 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue rookie, has built a career around conversations of size inclusion and body positivity. She got her start in the fashion industry working as a journalist, and as the fashion editor at Glamour, she focused on conversations around plus-size fashion. Chan carried the same motivations into her her own size-inclusive luxury womenswear brand, Henning, which was acquired by Universal Standard earlier this year.

Given her history and her admirable passions, it’s no surprise who she views as the most iconic SI Swimsuit model. During a Q&A game with fellow rookie Mady Dewey at Miami Swim Week in July, she posed the question, “Ahead of the 60th anniversary of SI Swim, who would you consider to be the most iconic model in its history?”

Chan answered without hesitation. “For me, it’s Ashley Graham because of what [her] cover did for women of all shapes and sizes, for the body positivity movement—taking it mainstream—for plus sized models and for anyone who has felt that they didn’t fit into the literal frame of a model, let alone a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model,” she said. “It just is bar none for me.”

The Canadian looks up to Graham for the path that she has paved in the modeling industry for women of all sizes. While we also think Graham’s work admirable, we think Chan’s current advocacy efforts are equally as impressive.

Lauren Chan walks the runway during Miami Swim Week at the W South Beach.

Ivan Apfel/Getty Images

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