If 70% of American Women are size 14 or larger, then why are there so few places for us to shop?
Personally, I live and work in San Jose, CA. Our population here is over 1 Million people. Literally, there are 7 stores where I can shop locally - not including my boutique, Curvy Girl. Seven stores! Seven! For a population of over 1 Million, that's not enough.
I do NOT give my money to the evil empire, Walmart. Target has like three racks. Forever 21 has nothing for a woman as big as me. So, now I am down to four places to shop.
Fat women want to dress in sexy, contemporary, and stylish clothes! The fashion industry is leaving so much money on the table. I would think the economics alone would encourage more businesses to cater to women of size.
As a woman of size, I want to go and touch the items. I NEED to try on the items. I want to get an idea for the texture.
My body is larger on the bottom and smaller on the top. I have hips, boobs and large tummy that desperately needs to TRY ON my purchases. (Or spend hours and tons of money returning online purchases.) But, seriously, I want the same luxury that the size 0 to size 12 population gets. I want to walk around the mall and pop into the stores and try stuff on. I want to be able to shop and browse with my friends and try on styles that are out of my comfort zone and maybe try something new and fresh. I want to shop trendy clothes that will allow me to feel relevant, too.
Even if you are not a plus size woman, I am sure you can imagine why it's so important for women of size to be able to try on our clothes. Our bodies are all different and our curves are in different places. Not to mention, it's just a basic human function. We have to wear clothes. Truly, it's so frustrating to have so few options. It's so unfair. I have money to spend. I have to dress stylishly and professionally. And, I just despise having the exactly same clothes as all of my fat sisters.
Here in San Jose, we have Lane Bryant, Macy's, Torrid, Jill Alexander, Target, Forever 21 and Walmart. For my smaller sisters, there are hundreds and hundreds of places to shop and browse. But, mathematically speaking, that makes no sense since we make up the majority. I know it's even worse in smaller cities. I hear from our customers and often, the women in smaller cities only have Walmart as an option. Or they have to drive 2 hours to find a Lane Bryant.
I talked with a few of my plus-size sisters and my friend Dreamboat Annie who owns a boutique in Portland says "I say the more plus size boutiques the merrier! As founder of a plus size store in Portland, Fat Fancy, I believe it's important to me to have physical spaces where fat people can walk into and experience finding things in their size."
And, Annie is correct. My boutique is a safe place for women of size to come and shop. But, maybe more importantly, we are a community. We connect online and via events at my boutique. It's so comforting to shop among people who understand your struggle.
My friend and author June Stevens Westerfield has some intense feelings about having more brick and mortar store that cater to women of size: "Going into most stores to buy clothes, or even going in with smaller friends so they can buy clothes, can create anxiety. Personally, I feel awkward and embarrassed when someone comes near me and sees me standing near clothes that obviously won't fit me. To me, being able to go into a store like Curvy Girl is a rare and coveted moment of feeling normal. It's somewhere you don't have to be embarrassed about your size. You can walk up to a rack and know you will probably be able to find something that fits you.
When you go into the dressing room no one is going to look at you as if you are going to tear, stretch out, or damage the clothes just by trying them on. "Straight" sized women don't worry about those things. But for a plus sized woman to have a half an hour or however long you shop to be free to browse and try on things WITHOUT worrying, it is a true luxury. And it SHOULDN'T be. There should be more stores like Curvy Girl, because it shouldn't be abnormal to feel "normal"."
We all want to feel normal. We all want to feel fashionable, beautiful, and some of us want to feel sexy, too.
It is my mission to help women to feel beautiful. As we say at Curvy Girl, Sexy is for Every Body. Sexy and beautiful does not stop at a size 10. I hope that the fashion industry is getting it together now that the mainstream media is including larger bodied people on their covers. There are millions and millions of us our here just waiting for some new stores to open. We have some fat cash and we are not afraid to spend it! I hope one day we can also franchise my boutique, Curvy Girl, to other cities all over the U.S. and maybe one day even franchise our boutique concept in Europe. I get so many emails from women all over the planet begging for me to open up a Curvy Girl in their city. One day, friends, one day!
