Value of the Curve

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:21:39 > You know what?...

How do you fit the figure everyone wants to ignore?…

Unbeknownst to most fashion manufacturers us big girls actually have waists!

Granted it might take an ordinance survey map to find most - but waists do exist even on the biggest girls. Recent fashions have dictated a nipped-in waist, belted coats and higher waistbands but were these neater styles available to the curvier girls?

A conundrum, why in this day and age is it still presumed by most that plus-size clothing is only wanted and needed by the middle aged and supposedly frumpy ?

There is only one British designer Anna Scholz who shows a fearless approach to her designs and has celebrated the larger figure by only producing fitted styles emphasising boobs, waists, hips and bums – it is a pity that other designers shy away from fit.

Italian designers only dictate classic tailoring for the larger figure; you find very little flexibility or innovation in their styling, but at the same time at least they do think of shape. Collections like Elena Miro show great endeavour to produce femininity and style in their designs – fitted jackets, straight skirts and well constructed trousers – with waistbands! Why can we not see that here?

The US has developed plus-sizes much more than we have. There is still a certain advantage in shopping trips to the US for a season’s wardrobe but the Internet has enabled us to have easier access to what is on offer – but there is a question of quality over quantity – the US still looks to Europe for fashion, fit and style.

Germany is a core manufacturing base for plus-size clothing but you sometimes find that German designers over-compensate for the larger figure either producing matronly collections or avoid any shape at all in their garments. Up-to-the-minute trend fashion is sorely missing and they are rarely designed for the younger woman.

Easy-dressing styles from varied European manufacturers – including Germany show the only modern and sometimes technical interest to their designs for all sizes - taking influence from Asia and North Africa to construct collections but this kind of dressing is only for a limited market – not all women want to wear unstructured clothes and why should they?

Only a couple of years ago belts covering all sizes were almost impossible to find, now you can get them from specialists like Evans – why not anywhere else – why is it so difficult to size belts in highstreet stores? Or is it the same as many other things and it is the buyer who does not bother or have the budget to vary the sizes on offer?

Recent increased size ranges on the highstreet has been a great victory for embattled campaigners who for years have been trying to persuade buyers and manufacturers that their sizing structures were completely wrong for today’s modern woman.

Here we have a problem – the proper upgrading of sizes, how to do this properly so that the larger figure is flattered as much as the smaller in exactly the same outfit? It is not just a matter of adding inches to a block pattern but adjusting it as well – making allowances for the differences in figure between a woman that is a size 10 and a woman who is a size 20. One of the best highstreet retailers to do this is Dorothy Perkins whose feminine designs are successful at either end of the size scale – maybe this is because it’s sister company within Arcadia is Evans the plus-size retailer and that experience has fed through.

The question is – now that we have traversed one sizing quandary and have successfully opened the eyes of some fashion retailers and manufacturers into examining their sizing structures and go onto increase their size ranges, can we start to make our needs known and insist that these very same people take another huge step to improve the availability of well designed, structured and fashionable ‘plus-size’ collections that have as much marketing value put on them as their standard ranges.

Marketing in fact is the crux of the matter – marketing and advertising shows what value a company puts on an item – so far there is very little evidence that general retailers put much value on their curvier customers.

Which is a shame.

UGH