Paris Fashion Week is doing much more for the plus-size model movement than New York Fashion Week, where the only distinguished plus-size model casting was Crystal Renn at Z-Spoke.

Jean Paul Gaultier, who has become known for casting Renn in his runway shows and present fall 2010 campaign, cast Beth Ditto to open and close his show Saturday. Renn was one of the few extra plus-size models on the runway.

Gaultier told reporters after the show, what counts is personality; there is not just the one form of typecast beauty. This collection’s pleats can be worn by any size and settle in to different body shapes.

British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, for one, is strenuous of “shock” casting. She told the Guardian, “Instead of a fuss being made about a little cause célèbre exceptions on the catwalk, what I’d actually like in its place is for most models to be a size 10 rather than a size 8.”