Sturdy Girls Unite!

Christmas is in less than a week and by some strange twist of fate, my longtime group of friends has finally managed to book an actual vacation for the time between Christmas and New Years. In preparation for the upcoming festivities (which includes two parties to celebrate Christmas and New Year's), I have been spending a lot of time searching for the perfect dresses to don on these occasions. Much of this shopping has been done online, so naturally the size chart from each site has been a frequent visitor to my desktop. 

For most of my adult life, I've been limited to the larges and extra larges on the dress rack due to the massive gift(s) mother nature gave me in the fifth grade. This is infuriating when my waist and hips coincide with the female average in this country, but I don't want to look like an overstuffed pepper and often make my way to the plus size or grandma section of the store. I would detest my upper half far less if companies took into account those of us who simply cannot squeeze into little triangle-top bathing suits or strapless mini dresses, but judging by my recent experience with the size charts of today, it seems I'll be doomed to the grandma section for eternity. 

The facts stand that most companies would rather have fewer customers walking around in their product-as long as they were size four or smaller-than have more business and expand their line to include sizes above a 10. High-end fashion moguls call it an "aesthetic choice" to not include larger sizes suggesting that anything larger than a 10 looks bad in the clothing. This concept of "larger", however, is something that is all relative to the population in question. 

Large: adjective. Of greater size than the ordinary, esp. with reference to a size of clothing or to the size of a packaged commodity.

If the average dress size of an American woman is a 14, doesn't than mean that these clothes are all extra small? It baffles me that the supply and demand is so inverted in this case. Here, businesses have a group of women (who seem to be the overwhelming majority due to recent obesity poll in the United States) who are ready and willing to spend money on clothing that fits and instead of making themselves more marketable and more profitable, they're deciding to limit their target audience to a small percentage of the population. News flash: sturdy girls have money, too. 

 In my case, finding dresses or tops is usually the issue, so when I find something that fits, I'll take six of them. That is until I check the price tag. Why on god's green earth is this flimsy piece of cotton with a sequin on it $75.00? It seems unfair that some women can find stylish, trendy outfits for next-to-nothing while others are reduced to dressing up a nice muumuu with a belt. Furthermore, while the fashion industry has made tremendous strides in at least recognizing average-looking women, the runways are still bamboozling viewers everywhere when they release their plus size collections. 

This is a plus-sized model. Right.

A few years back, Glamour did an editorial on plus size models and the shocking findings suggested that maybe these models weren't really all that "plus-sized" to begin with. One model (who wears a size 12, lower than the national average) admitted to wearing padding under her clothes in other to fill out the clothing when she's been booked for a plus size gig. Why are you booking someone who doesn't fit the clothes? It's one thing to tailor a shirt or pants but entirely something different to inflate someone to fit a dress two or three sizes larger! The reasoning? The booking editor at Glamour says that there aren't many plus size models available due to lack of employment opportunities for such models. 

So I say, to all the fashion entrepreneurs of our time, someone PLEASE be ballsy enough to make dresses to fit my chest or her hips or her ass that are affordable and cute. Is that too much to ask? You'll be surprised at the business you get, believe me.