Shopping for plus-size clothes should be far easier than it is. Everyone is made differently, yet the fashion world seems to think we all fit within a few specific size ranges! When you’re slightly larger or taller than “the norm” it becomes increasingly challenging to find nice things to wear.
Many of you have likely experienced these issues all the time, but here are some of our least favourite things about shopping for plus-size clothing:
A lack of options
We’ll admit, some brands have introduced better plus-size ranges in recent years. However, the sheer variety pales in comparison to what everyone else gets to choose from. The hardest part is buying little things to add some flavour to your look; we can get basic plus-size items, but accessories and more unconventional clothes are SO hard to find.
It’s like we’re restricted to buying certain things just because we fit bigger sizes than the fashion industry thinks women should fit. There’s less freedom to get creative with our outfits, which makes us feel pretty crappy as we choose between nice things that don’t fit or boring things that do fit.
Terrible tailoring
There’s a common misconception that “plus size” refers to one type of woman. Stereotypically, the term is associated with bigger women with larger waists and bigger busts. In reality, so many people fit in this range. You can find women who have fairly small waists, but are over 6 feet so “normal” sizes don’t fit them! They may wear size 1 boots and have really small feet yet require much bigger tops or longer trousers.
The diversity in the plus-size community makes it hard to find things that fit well. Plus-size tailoring is generally pretty awful and you end up with items that are too tight here but too loose and big there. It’s an embarrassment, to be honest, and brands need to do more to be inclusive of all shapes and sizes.
Harder to find in-store
Shopping online for plus-size clothes is hard enough; heaven forbid you try to do it in an actual shop. Most brands only stock their plus-size collections online, so you’re left with nothing to try on in the actual shops.
It puts us in the frustrating position of needing to try things on but not being able to until we buy them online. As a result, you end up spending loads of money on clothes in different sizes, trying them on and then sending most (if not all) of them back. From a financial perspective, you’re out of pocket for a few days or weeks until the refunds come in, but it’s just so aggravating that you can’t go to the local shopping centre and try things on like everyone else!
Again, we will say that things are better now than they used to be - which is shocking when you think how difficult things still are for plus-size women. There must be more inclusivity and we should probably do away with the term “plus size” while we’re at it. So many women with different body types and shapes fit this term; we need to split it up and get clothes made for everyone!
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