Look, don’t get me wrong, I love all of the plus size models we see represented now. But can we just have average sized women, please?
I’m not a plus size, but I’m definitely not small or petite in any way. I’m just average. And I cannot find models that looks like me hardly ever.
I love fashion, and I love to look cute, but I’m insecure in my body because I don’t see fashionable influencers with my body type, or models that are just normal sized.
I just feel like us average people need representation too.
This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.
A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.
Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic? She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing. But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great. She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success. So - what gives?
His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear. Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles. He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses. You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on. Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered. He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit. That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.
I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way. I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did.
It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this. But no one ever told me. I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes. No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.
I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed. I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to. No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to. I guess I just didn’t know. I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.
I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.
I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.
So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while. But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not. Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.
This post is one of those things that I will reblog every time it appears on my dash. This is so important, and no one ever tells you about it.
I almost didn’t read this but then I did and I’m really glad that I did.
Super important
Tldr: The reason clothes never “looked right on you” is because models and celebrities always had their clothes tailored to fit them perfectly.
This is so important. If something doesn’t fit you perfectly, the problem is the clothes, not you.
Now more than ever, customers look for sustainability when shopping, despite the increase of damaging industries such as fast fashion, which are overproducing and polluting. This is because of the many benefits that sustainable shopping offers, including the lack of slave labour, fewer pollutants and of course, the use of organic and renewable materials.
i am so tired of ppl not watching the video and rbing with their ignorant opinions going on abt “dress for your body type” and shit like…. that’s not the point. the point is that almost everything deemed trendy and attractive is awarded these qualities BECAUSE they are worn by tall, skinny and usually white bodies.
if y’all had bothered to watch the video, you would’ve seen the comparison between gigi hadid wearing denim shorts and a regular ass shirt and a normal fat woman wearing the exact same fit, and how drastic the reception was for the latter. it’s the exact same outfit, nothing revolutionary or new, i can’t even call it fashion—denim shorts and a t-shirt. yet the fat woman was mocked relentlessly online and said she looked like a racist, while miss hadid was praised for being a trendsetter and a fashion icon.
and not for nothing but y’all have to shut the fuck up abt dressing for body types. it’s bullshit. women should be able to wear whatever the fuck we desire without needing others’ approval for whether or not our bodies are attractive enough for you to let us get out of the house or post pictures online. the most important thing is that YOU like what you’re wearing and YOU feel confident and comfortable in your outfits and your expression of yourself. wear a long skirt “even if” you’re short. wear 6 inch heels “even if” you’re 6 feet tall. wear crop tops and hot shorts and backless dresses “even if” you’re fat. cover up and take off whatever you want as long as you like what you’re wearing.
I am so tired of fashion rn, finally someone said it. These trends are for skinny women
If i may throw my 2 cents in. Im no expert but I am a nerd who likes fashion and likes to study it… To whatever that may mean.
So, the irony that the lovely lady who made the video got ripped apart is hilarious and id feel bad for the people who missed the point if i didnt also think they were stupid.
So fashion, in the more modern sense anyway, has kinda always been this horrible size obsessed nightmare. Before standardized sizing, you drafted the patterns yourself, and made your clothes/had them made to your exact measurements. When you go to fashion school, they teach you figure drawing and sewing. In both of these you are creating your garments for thin, tall mannequins and models. Dress forms in fashion school come in one size and one size only. Now this isnt actually the worst thing simply for the fact that its easier to judge and properly grade when you are working with the same thing (same figures and measurements), so i do get why fashion school does this. However, in my very limited understanding as i have never been to fashion school, there is no classes or any kind of education on how to dress or draw “real” (ie an average person) people or how to build garments that suit their body. I have even heard stories about students being told to stop drawing larger figures because thats not how things are done.
Which essentially leads to the point of the video - fashion is made for the tall, thin, super rich and is not made for the average person. The only times you really see people who arent that 1 body shape/type, is when they are put into the box of plus sized and dress in the way that these oppressive jerks expect them to dress (loose, flowy, boxy garments that hide everything because god forbid you have even a little back fat roll peeking out from under your top).
Im not plus sized (maybe in sewing patterns but those are way more fucked then standard sizing), but i am curvy with a smaller chest and wider hips, the pear shape if you will. Im also short. I have some rolls, stretch marks, and scars all over from like living. My body, because genes, has a decently even weight distribution (meaning and extra fat is distributed all over rather then just in the stomach or legs or whatever). My waist is only 30 inches, im not that big, and i could not wear and look “good” in the outfits shown in the thumbnail.
Now i use and think the whole body shapes/types and dressing for your body is a good guideline. But thats just it, they are guidelines. Guidelines that are sold to us as absolutes because fashion is made for the tall and thin. The sucky thing there is anyone who isnt that feels shamed, and anyone who IS that is shamed. The fashion industry is a producer of shame in all sense. Trends exist to keep the cycle going so that no one feels quite ok when shopping, so that the shame can continue and the industry can continue to make money off you. Because trends will always exclude one or more groups of people, who will be shamed for being off trend and thus will try to be trendy, only to be shamed for not looking right.
Fashion brands and retailers profit from our shame and purposefully teaches its professionals and students to not be inclusive. Plus sized people need their clothes built differently, i need my clothes built differently, but they dont know how. Because to make clothes that actually fit people and fit them properly, would stop the shame and stop their cash flow.
Wear whatever you want. Learn to sew so that you can alter your garments to fit YOU and make YOU happy. You are more then deserving of feeling good about yourself and what you wear, do not let this bs industry hurt you.
I’m getting slightly off topic, but during my costuming program, I was one of the few people who didn’t do a fashion design undergrad. The difference in skill level was very telling.
I was behind the curve when it came to actually constructing garments. The other students had three continuous years of sewing under their belts, and I could barely keep up.
But pattern drafting/fitting? I was not only on-par with them, in some ways I was even ahead. Because the costuming world makes clothing for individuals, not set sizes. You need to be able to work with many different body types. The fashion students were basically re-learning everything from scratch. The process is THAT different.
Prior to mass production, clothes were made to fit our body. Nowadays we’re expected to make our bodies fit the clothes.
Dress Fashion Style is an art which is taken by particular individuals. Only a few few individuals know how to put stylish outfits together. Some individuals are identified for being stylish and others are known to present new styles in the marketplace which is followed by everyone else.
There are some women fashion that come and go while there are some that are here to remain. Many females look to publications, tv, or try to keep up with their preferred superstars to be able to determine what are the latest and best styles.
AHairstyle Fashion simply represents the design of locks. Hair-styling is a big way of grooming yourself through style and beauty products either it is applicable to social, practical or popular concerns. Hair-styling is customized to a large degree during the last few decades. Cuts, waves, patterns, additions, shading, perms, relaxers and Texturing are all the part of locks design.
Day by Day, the pattern of dressed in style Jewellery Fashion is improving and people are drawn towards newest jewellery style. Now ladies also like to put on newest and stylish style jewellery so the designs and kinds of jewellery style will be modified after some time. There are also different so many groups separated in the jewellery style and these are also developed according to the events.
Get the latest information about fashion trends, style tips, men fashion, women fashion and kids fashion and get inspired by celebrity looks in Close Fashion.
As a fan of one amazing Bernadette Banner on YouTube, and considering that the main fictional character I write about is an aspiring fashion designer, I figured I’d leave this link here for anyone willing and able to support the Costume Industry Coalition, which is trying to ensure the survival of the handmade costume industry that supplies plays, musicals, TV shows— really, all aspects of the entertainment industry following a lot of studio closings because of the pandemic.
I am looking to start posting again. I want to take the blog in a slightly different direction. There will still be plus size fashion & styling, but I also want to talk about the financial cost of blogging, & how working as a buyer can increase the pressure you put on yourself to always have the latest and greatest.
Is this something anyone would be interested in? I want to make the blog a more collaborative space.
Because we haven’t come that far from the 19th century corset. Because in girl world, dieting and working out will never be enough. Because shapewear for women can be found in any shop that sells women’s underwear, while shapewear for men is somewhat of an oddity. A niche market.
Because plus size models have to wear it to create an impossible ideal plus size body(Small wrists, face, waist, big bust, big hips. Sound familiar?)
Image of Kathy D. Woods, a Black little woman. Kathy is outside and standing in front of a white building. Kathy is wearing a red-orange snakeskin-printed dress with black dress shoes. Kathy is smiling directly into the camera.
Fashion and feeling good in the clothes you wear are important, and for some disabled women, it can be a challenge to find apparel that fits your body type and shape.…
Whoever thinks that buying a shirt for 15,- bugs is a regular price, you should better watch this!… It needs time, research and resources to make the clothes we all love so much. Therefor Fila Deutschland takes us behind the scenes and gives us a glimpse into the making of one of their most iconic pieces - The polo shirt.
Die Meinung, dass ein Shirt nicht mehr als ein paar Euro kosten sollte ist weit verbreitet. Wie schwachsinnig und respektlos diese Einstellung eigentlich ist, zeigt dieses Video aus dem Hause Fila. Das mittlerweile über hundert Jahre alte Unternehmen gewährt uns einen Blick hinter die Kulissen und zeigt uns wie viel Zeit, Arbeit und Ressourcen hinter der Herstellung eines echten Klassikers stecken.
