Plus-sized Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Hunter McGrady reveals how shopping in NYC ‘has actually gotten worse’
Being a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model hasn’t made clothes shopping any easier for Hunter McGrady.
The plus-size model, who recently graced the iconic mag’s cover, said she struggles to find clothes that fit her in the Big Apple.
“There is only a handful of stores that actually carry plus sizes in stores in New York City. You’re hard pressed to find it these days, which is really eliminating a huge portion of the population. Clothes aren’t for one body size, clothes are for everyone,” McGrady, 31, told The Post.
Brands which once offered larger sizes have “all pulled back” over the last year, she added.
“A lot of brands … had larger sizing and you were able to access that in stores. And then over the last year they’ve all pulled back … It’s crazy to me that brands and stores are leaving that money on the table. We are here and we are willing to spend. And just because we are above a size 12 doesn’t mean we don’t deserve beautiful, good quality clothes.”
The blonde beauty could only name one store, Never Fully Dressed on Elizabeth Street in SoHo, where she can find clothes for her body type.
“When people ask me, ‘Where do you shop?’ I honestly can’t give them a full answer,” she said.
The size-20 McGrady — who launched a partnership with Baskin-Robbins this week for the return of the brand’s Beach Day ice cream flavor — was looking forward to shopping when she first moved to the city in 2016, but quickly came to the realization that the stores she wanted to frequent didn’t carry her size.
“It was so devastating because I had always heard, ‘Oh my gosh, New York has the best shopping,’ and I was so excited to experience it,” she recalled.
“And then to not get that fulfillment at all and to feel totally defeated by shopping here, it broke my heart. Not just for me, but for everybody who comes in and can’t get that experience.”
The Los Angeles native, whose dad Michael is an actor, and mom Brynja was a model, started modeling at 15 — and as a close to 6- foot, size 2 teenager who weighed 114 pounds, was still getting rejected by multiple agencies.
“I kept getting told … ‘Listen, you’re great, but you’re just not thin enough to be a model,'” she recalled.
After falling into a depression, she took a much-needed break from the industry and got “lots and lots of therapy.”
She then learned about plus-size modeling and at 19, signed with the agency Wilhelmina, headquartered on Lexington Avenue, and by 22, moved to Columbus Circle.
“Really everything started for me here,” she said. “About seven months after I moved here, I got booked for Sports Illustrated.”
McGrady landed her first Sports Illustrated cover in May, and said for the 13-hour shoot, which took place in Quintana Roo, a remote island an hour from Cancun, Mexico, she tried on at least 100 bathing suits.
“That’s one thing I love about Sports Illustrated is we always get a say in the swimsuit. And I really love that because a lot of times, you don’t get to choose what you feel comfortable in.”
At the time of the shoot, she was unaware she’d even landed the coveted cover, and only found out a week before the magazine made its official announcement.
“I didn’t even think that was a possibility,” she said. “It was so surreal.”
To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit created seven different covers, including four solo covers which, besides McGrady, included models Kate Upton and Chrissy Teigen and broadcast journalist Gayle King.
McGrady was also selected — alongside notable names like Tyra Banks, Martha Stewart and Christie Brinkley — for another of the glossy’s anniversary covers featuring a photo of 27 of the brand’s legendary cover models.
Three minutes into the “Legends” shoot, which took place at the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Fla., McGrady fell off the stage.
“I actually hit my chin, and it literally swelled to like a golf-ball size and was black and blue, and I had bruises on my arm. So that was great to do that right in front of Martha Stewart and Christie Brinkley and like all these people,” she quipped.
McGrady, who lives in New Jersey with her husband, advertising exec Brian Keys, and their two young children, hasn’t framed her Sports Illustrated cover yet.
However, she received a replica of it as a gift, which is on display at her home.
“When we announced it on CBS, they gave each of us girls like life-sized versions of it, so it’s in my husband’s office,” she said.
“So I’m always like, ‘Put it behind you during meetings.'”
