I don’t have a reputation of being the most fashion forward person but I do have a reputation for wearing clothes that look good on me. As a “plus-size” girl and I use that term hesitantly because I’m a borderline size between “normal” and “plus size” I am appalled with the availability of fashion catering towards my body shape.
The fashion industry has a long history of catering to the tall, leggy, almost anorexic woman however in recent years I do give them credit for embracing the natural curves of a woman. As a young girl I would look at the models walking down the catwalks and posing in a magazine and I would aspire to be like them. I wanted to wear the pretty clothes and be beautiful. I developed a strong sense of fashion at an early age and I pride myself on keeping up to date with current trends. The biggest issue that I face today however, is that while I am aware of what is considered “fashion”, it is not readily available to me in my size. Apparently being over a size 14 means that I automatically lose my fashion sense.
It makes me wonder, how many times as a young girl, I looked at “larger” women and laughed at their frumpy fashion. I automatically assumed that these women didn’t take pride in how they looked and were ugly- not because they were curvy, but because they didn’t wear pretty clothes. Upon growing up and becoming one of these curvier ladies I realised that the problem wasn’t that I didn’t care about fashion but rather fashion didn’t care about me.
Now I’m the first to admit that certain designs and styles of clothing aren’t going to look good me regardless of whether its available in extended sizes however just because I have more curves doesn’t mean that I want to wear a potato sack as a dress or wear an oversized t-shirt with elasticised jeans. I want to wear the cute strapless cocktail dress, or the skinny/straight leg jeans with a cute blouse. I want to dress for my body shape but I also want my clothes to be a reflection of who I am and what I like, which is fashion!
Don’t get me wrong, not all “plus-size” fashion is frumpy- if you step away from the Big W/Walmarts, Target’s and K-Marts of the world, you will actually find some really cute clothes. In Australia possibly the most fashion forward plus size clothing store is City Chic. When this store opened in Sydney I was beside myself with joy. Finally someone had heard my pleas and developed a fashion line that catered to my size. The joy that I felt however was only a fleeting feeling as I soon discovered many flaws with the plus-size fashion industry. For starters, plus size fashion is expensive. Now I realise that fashion in general is expensive, however I’m willing to pay good money for my designer labels but lets be realistic here- City Chic is a long way from being classified as “designer”. On average a dress in the store would cost you anywhere between $100-$180 and tops average anywhere from $50-90. Its affordable when your not buying copious amounts of clothing however when you’re a teenager or a young adult on shoestring budget, the clothes are quite expensive.
As someone on the “borderline” between normal and plus-size clothing I will also admit that I buy clothes from other Australian stores that cater for a size 6-16 such as Sportsgirl, Portmans, Bardot and Forever New. In these stores the prices of clothing are on par with the prices in City Chic- so I’m not criticizing City Chic for over-charging their customers. What I am frustrated with however is that “plus-size” girls only have City Chic as an option in regards to fashionable clothing for young adults. They have no choice but to pay the prices in this store because they can’t get clothes as stylish in another store in their size. Women who are a size 8-14 however have the option of shopping at expensive stores however they can also walk into stores like Temt, SES, Valley Girl and Ice and pick up a cocktail dress for $20 and a business suit for $40! These clothes are replicas of the designer trends but come without the expensive label attached. One day I bought a dress in City Chic for $130 and I found a dress in the same material but slightly different style in Valley Girl for $30! That’s a $100 difference!
My sister, who’s a size 6, said to me one day whilst I was inflicting one of my rants upon her, that I should pay more for my clothes because I’m using twice as much material as her. To be fair, she has a point. I believe that a mark-up on plus size clothing is justifiable. Even double the price is fair, but in what universe is it fair for me, or some other curvier girl, to pay an extra $100 for a few more inches of material? One of the things that really bothers me with plus-size fashion in Australia is that it’s a lot more limited and expensive than in places such as the USA or the UK. I lived in the USA back in 2004 and I LOVED buying clothes over there because they were so cheap. I often go online looking at stores such as Forever 21 with their extended sizes or Torrid and I find all of these cheap gorgeous clothes in my size. The only reason I hesitate about buying them is that they usually incur a $40-50 shipping fee. Now, even with the shipping costs, due to a strong exchange rate, the clothes still work out cheaper than buying them here in Australia however if for some reason I select the wrong size, and lets face it- size charts aren’t always reliable- then I have to spend another $50 shipping it back, which means I ultimately paid $100 for nothing. Also packages are delivered within 1-3 weeks, which is okay if you can wait, but not good if your looking to buy an outfit for an unexpected party on the weekend!
The other issue that I find really frustrating when it comes to buying clothes, and I’m sure many girls of all sizes will agree with me, is the automatic assumption that when you go up a size in clothing, you automatically become taller and increase your cup size. I find that a lot of plus size clothing is often to long for my height and therefore needs alterations before I even wear the outfit. To put what I’m saying into perspective, I am 5 foot 6 inches tall. Average height- not what I would call tall but I can’t be considered short either. Upon measuring myself against the size chart on the City Chic website I was amused to find that I had the bust size of an XS (size 14), waist measurement of a S-M (size 16-18) and hip measurement of an XS.-S (size 14-16). From this I gathered that I should average a size 16 or a SMALL in that store. You can imagine my shock when I had to buy an XL in a top in order for it to fit me. I find it hard enough to buy clothes that cater to my abnormal measurements and I have enough self-esteem issues, than to be told that I am an XL in plus-size clothing. Now I know that I am not the only person to experience this problem. My sister who I mentioned is a size 6, is a fitness instructor who lives on a freakishly healthy diet. She is borderline OCD about being skinny and makes sure to avoid fats and sugars and exercise everyday. If she happens to gain 1kg she will double the amount of time she spends exercising in order to lose it straight away. She has gone up two sizes before for no apparent reason and it really screwed with her self-esteem and her confidence in her body. Both of us are coming from two different angles and yet we are both experiencing the same problems. However at least when she goes up a few sizes because of the make of the dress she can still wear designer fashion-when I go up a few sizes the fashion industry tells me that they don’t make clothes in that size.
I will say that the availability of fashion in my size is improving- I’m sure my overflowing closet and dresser are testament to that fact, but we still have a long way to go before I’m satisfied. I’m fortunate enough that being on the cusp of sizes between standard and plus-size that I do get to experience a bit of both worlds and I’m not strictly limited to one like some people, however perhaps this has made it even more frustrating for me, because I am neither one nor the other so I can’t just accept it. There are elements of the fashion world that I get to experience that make me crave for the parts that I can’t have and there are element of plus-size fashion that I get to experience that really allow me to identify the distance between the two fashion worlds.
In conclusion I just want to point out that fashion is what you make it. Clothes that look good on you will always be more fashionable than clothes that you think you’re supposed to wear because some magazine said so. While the fashion industry may discriminate based on size, fashion sense and awareness of what looks good doesn’t. I just hope the fashion industry recognize more openly that there is a huge market that they could cater to in the plus-size world which is filled with fashion savvy girls with their credit cards ready just waiting to buy that gorgeous dress they saw on the catwalk at fashion week.
For all those curvy girls out there who think that the fashion industry is overlooking them, I leave you with the wise words of Coco Chanel :
“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
XOXO
No comments:
Post a Comment