Big Girls Need Clothes Too!

The other day, Mom and I went up to City Creek. We were super excited cuz the new H&M and Forever 21 both carried their plus size lines. Since both stores at City Creek are ENORMOUS, we were really optimistic as to the selection of clothing they were sure to offer.

We squeeze our way through the 38,000 square feet of teeny, weeny, child-sized clothing, we finally make it to the curvy girl section...or rather, the handicapped-bathroom-stall sized corner of outer darkness that they so graciously reserved for woman who actually eat their food instead of throwing it up!!!

You think I'm exaggerating? I kid you not, there were maybe 10 racks of merchandise crammed in to an area smaller than my master bedroom. SERIOUSLY!!!! The space was about 10ft x 10ft. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!! You've got nearly 40,000 square feet of space in here, only 100 of which is reserved for clothing that will fit the 50% of the female population who wear size 14 or higher!!!

Slut Wear

Frumpy Frumperton

To add insult to injury, the clothing they do offer is HIDEOUS!!! I don't get it!! Do these stores think that all big girls are frumpy, 55-year-old crazy cat ladies? Either that or hood rat, hoochie mamas gettin' ready to hit up da club. There's no variety. Either I'm dressing like an old lady or a slut. That's all these stores have to offer in my size. Why can't they just make the same clothes and styles offered in straight sizes but in size 16?

I want to be able to buy off the rack at these trendy and affordable places. I can't shop at specialty retailers that do happen to offer fashionable clothing in my size because they charge like, a bajillion dollars.

And thrifting is already a chore in itself, searching through rack after rack, trying to hunt down a bargain. Add to it the fact that I'm a big girl and require a tad bit more fabric to cover my curves...

GAME OVER

Thrifting is nearly impossible.

Long story short, I left City Creek that day feeling fat, ugly, dejected, and ashamed.

Why why WHY is the fashion industry so caught up on being skinny???

Editor-in-chief of PLUS Model Magazine, Madeline Jones, couldn't have said it any better :

Not everyone is meant to be skinny, our bodies are beautiful and we are not talking about health here because not every skinny person is healthy. What we desire is equality to shop and have fashion options just like smaller women. Small women cannot be marketed to with pictures of plus-size women, why are we expected to respond to pictures of small size 6 and 8 women? We don’t! When the plus size modeling industry began, the models ranged in size from 14 to 18/20, and as customers we long for those days when we identify with the models and feel happy about shopping. Are we moving toward that goal?

I ask the same question, are we moving toward that goal? Are we doing all we can to promote a healthy lifestyle or simply instilling the fear of being fat?