Plus Size Clothing (or ways to dress a garbage bag)
by sylvia
Although I haven’t technically been “plus size” my whole life (not really sure how long that term has really been in use), “plus size” has come a long way. That’s not really saying much, considering where you shop. Some places get it. Most places don’t. Here’s a message I want to send to plus size clothing companies:
I’m fat. Wearing a garbage bag accentuates that. Putting a belt on a garbage bag makes it worse. And putting large, garish flowers on that garbage bag makes an even bigger point – I’m fat, and apparently you think I have bad taste and don’t care what I look like.
Some tasty examples:
Also, you know that old adage that seems to hold true – don’t wear horizontal stripes, they make you look wider – well, these “designers” think outside of that fat box:
Personally, I buy a lot of clothes from Lane Bryant because they get it more than some places, but I kid you not, I have tried on my share of major garbage bags in that joint.
This one violates on two counts:
Another pet peeve is the notion that you can’t actually have fat people modeling your fat people clothing, because, well – that would be wrong, right? Fat people are disgusting, aren’t we? How dare we be able to relate to the models wearing our fat clothes that are so obviously pulled taut in the back with a clip so that we don’t see what garbage bags these clothes are on these “ideal” models….imagine if you were a model and the only gig you could book was modeling plus size clothing, and you weren’t a plus size model?!?!
Seriously, WTF?!?!?
There is actually a section called “BIG SHIRTS” – no duh
Ok, and this – this doesn’t even look good on the model who is probably a size 3 or 5, can you imagine it on someone normal sized? The sizes go up to 5X, BTW. At least the stripes are correct.
There are a million more examples, and some of these aren’t even the worst of them. Shouldn’t you be allowed to feel good about yourself no matter what size you are? I think so, but these clothes remind us that people just don’t know what to do with fat people. Can they look attractive? Can they wear flattering clothes? Can they look presentable? Nah, we have to wear garbage bags with belts.
I actually really like myself in horizontal stripes, personally. Not those LB tops, but then LB seems to be serving us nothing but a big bucket of ugly lately. Seriously, I can’t even remember the last time I bought something there that wasn’t a bra or underwear.
Also, my personal theory is that the “big shirts” moniker is a leftover from the 80s when just about every shirt was a big shirt. Seriously, all my collared shirts from the 80s had shoulder pads in them and were long enough to be paired with stirrup pants.
But stuff like those shirts is why I’ve given up shopping at mainstream retailers mostly and buy mostly from etsy and ebay.
I have to say, I would love to have a choice of so many different plus size clothing shops in Australia. We have one…There may be others but I certainly haven’t found them around me. It’s called City Chic (used to be Big City Chic but thankfully changed its name) and most of the clothing they do looks like you’d wear it on a night out not to work. When I was in Canada and the USA a couple of months ago, I stocked up big on tops and dresses. The only problem of course, they are summer items and we are in winter. I can’t wear a cute black dress with thin straps and a LOT of cleavage from Walmart to work or anywhere for that matter, in winter. But at least I know my size now and can get my sister to buy me clothes and send them over. Anyway, the point of this reply was to say I totally agree! I don’t want to wear garbage bags with a belt! They make me look terrible! Smarten up your act designers!
I’d probably wear the big shirt if it didn’t usually have a row of buttons down the front ruining the motif. I wouldn’t pay too much for it because I can get frump at Wal-mart, but I’d wear it. Possibly I’d get a wide belt and some shiny leggings. I hate that Roaman’s won’t use plus sized models to show their clothing though, everything looks like a tent when there’s not a person filling it out.
i like to wear gargage bags the small glad bags
Those sound pretty. Yea I think they would look good on me!