Fat-shion!

One thing that drove 232 crazy was the frightening lack of imagination that hit designers as soon as they conceived of bodies over and above “the norm.” Even though the average American woman is a size 14… many stores that cater to young women (say Express or H&M) either stop at a size 12 or in some lucky instances struggle to make it up to a size 16 or 18 in their uber-super-duper limited collection. And it’s a stretch… For women audacious enough to be large, clothing found in the “Women’s” section of department stores tends to be spandexy or shapeless, paisley printed or beyond bland. It’s like the tailor gets cloth that he imagines to be large enough to throw over the woman, cuts a hole for the head, and voila! Ugh. Ugly.

I was a size 22. And at 24-years old, fatshion was frustrating. It was hard to feel amazing when I knew deep down, even in a large version, my curves were hidden by the frock-like quality of plus size clothing. It was hard to feel confident when I looked in the mirror and knew what I saw, what other’s would see, failed to reflect or express who I wanted to project (let alone who I was).

A little before my 24^th birthday, I discovered a plus-size store called Torrid and felt that at last, I didn’t have to be dressed in clothes designed for women above the age of 65. At last… booty shorts, skinny jeans, shapes! A woman I went to college with started a blog that I followed youngfatandfabulous and it introduced me to a whole other world of glamour and fat fabulousness. Big women could be fashionable and sexy… so long as they weren’t on a budget.

A desire to be as fashionable or tasteless as I pleased, a desire to look wild and whacky or modishly chic, a desire to affordably dress my best served as a major motivator. As I lost weight, my milestones were clothes sizes. I’d celebrate each dress size dropped with a mini-shopping spree and be sure to get rid of the larger sizes so as not to be tempted to backtrack. (Unfortunately, as I’ve gotten ride of my larger clothing, I can’t offer the canonic whole body in one pant leg photo). 

Today, I wear an American dress size 6 or 8. While it means I can no longer shop at Torrid, and because I have neither the talent nor time to design plus-size clothing, I relish the options the world will now give me. But uh… really… the world could stand to be a little more generous to bigger bodies.