Style, Romance & The Big Girl

At 12 years old I began my love affair with fashion and wedding magazines, much to my mother’s chagrin I might add. This was before the age of the celebrity cover girl when actual models appeared on the covers of magazines. Unfortunately it was before the politically correct term of plus size was used. Therefore, you were hard pressed to find a figure over a size 8, which apparently in the modeling world practically made you a heifer.

Fast forward thirty plus years and there have been many positive changes in fashion, It has become more inclusive of all sizes. I’d love to believe that they saw the light but the fact is they saw the red ink of straight sizes and the increase of black ink for designers and fashion companies that make stylish clothes for plus size women. Although we’ve come a long way there are still naysayers. According to an article published in the New York Times during Full Figured Fashion Week entitled Plus –Size Revelation: Bigger Women Have Cash, Too.

The plus-size market increased 1.4 percent while overall women’s apparel declined 0.8 percent in the 12 months leading up to April 2010 versus the same period a year earlier, the most recent figures available, according to NPD Group, a market research firm. The article goes on to say that although Americans have grown steadily heavier in the last decade, women’s plus-size clothing still makes up only 17 percent of the women’s apparel market today, according to NPD. There just is not much supply or variation in plus-size clothes for women to buy, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD. And the big retailers have mostly stayed away.

Cost is one issue. Plus-size clothes are more difficult, and expensive, to make than more traditional sizes. Material can be the largest portion of a garment’s cost — up to about 60 percent — and larger sizes require not only more of it, but sometimes different production processes. “It's not just about how much fabric is required,” said Deepa Neary, a retail consultant at A.T. Kearney, a consulting firm. “You’re actually using wider bolts of fabric, and that sometimes requires special machinery to produce the garments. You often don’t get to pass that on to the consumer, so your margins are not as high as the regular-size clothing.” (New York Times June 19, 2010)

To add insult to injury, some retailers have eliminated plus sizes from their stores, choosing to only sell them online. To me it smacks of get to the back of the fashion bus. We don’t want our beautiful slim clothing to be seen with fat girl fashions. However, we are more than happy to take your money.

You might think I’m comparing apples to oranges but the price of most things have gone up including potatoes, chicken, beef and wheat to name a few. Yet, I can go to any fast food chain and still super size my fries or get a triple cheeseburger. So to say that designers and retailers are worried about the cost of producing plus size clothing sounds ludicrous. They are essentially cutting off their nose to spite their face. If McDonald’s is smart enough to keep fries on the menu, what’s your excuse, really? 

I am way out of the age demographic for Glamour magazine but I’ve been a devoted reader for so long that I pick up the latest issue when I’m at my local bookstore or passing through Penn Station.

It seems that editor in chief, Cindi Leive has figured out that plus size women have pockets with money to spend and her magazine caters to our style and search for romance. The August 2012 issue of Glamour featured an article entitled All About You, Your love life, your work life and your life life. In 1863 Alexandre Cabanel painted the famous nude Venus. Artist, Anna Utopia Giordano slimmed down the goddess of love as a commentary of modern beauty. Glamour asked men the question, slim down this girl? (referring to the original painting) the result was most said no way. They liked the voluptuous curves and sexual mystique of a woman with a real body. Glamour goes on to say that every body is some guy’s type and a whopping 76% of men would rather date a confident plus size woman than an insecure supermodel. How do you like us now, Madison Avenue?

When asked do you compare women’s bodies to the ones you see in magazines or porn? Fifty-one percent said probably subconsciously. But I remember that real women don’t have the benefit of lighting and retouching. Bravo Glamour! I can assure you that there are more than a few Amens coming from the pews. We have become a country obsessed with size. Strike that. We’re a country that’s obsessed with the size of women’s bodies.

The media ideal of what makes a woman sexy is way off the mark. Perhaps if they’d come down from their tower they would see it firsthand. Goodness knows, I’ve seen what the media ideal looks like from the ground and let’s just say it’s a good thing the camera adds ten pounds, they need it,

 This brings me to my only pet peeve with Glamour’s September issue with Posh Beckham on the cover and serving as the guest editor. Here’s a woman who I am sure is probably a lovely person, who looks like she hasn’t met a piece of food she wanted near her mouth. Even while she was pregnant, photographers were hard pressed to see the all important baby bump. She is a part of the reason so many young and older women obsess over their size. She has five kids, a sexy husband and designers can’t throw clothes at her fast enough just so she can be photographed in them on the red carpet. I am still a big fan of Glamour and I love that they’re so inclusive when it comes to size. I would dare to make a suggestion of having Amber Riley on the cover and let het be the guest editor for an issue. It’s just a thought.

On June 8, 2012 The Huffington Post ran an article entitled Eating Disorders Affecting More Midlife Women, Studies have shown the majority of those affected by an eating disorder are young women, but the number of midlife women facing the same struggle is on the rise. As Huff/Post50 recently reported, treatment centers have seen an increase in the number of middle-aged women seeking help for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The signs of an eating disorder signs of an eating disorder-- such as lack of menstruation or loss of bone density -- are more difficult to spot in older women than in younger women, often leaving midlife women misdiagnosed. At any age, damage to the body resulting from an eating disorder can be grave. Sarah Parker, director of anxiety and eating disorders at the Reeds Treatment Center in New York told ABC News: "There can be significant damage to the heart and heart muscles," said Parker. "In really severe cases, the heart can stop functioning. Fat stores in the brain can become depleted and affect cognitive and neurological functioning. It can also result in osteoporosis and organ failure."

More than 10 million Americans suffer from some form of an eating disorder, including anorexia, bulimia and binge eating, the National Eating Disorders Association reports. An increase of 42 percent of middle-aged women with eating disorders was seen from 2001 to 2010. Triggers of a midlife eating disorder can include the pressures of aging, relationships and personal loss.

This is one of the reasons I believe that more magazines and publishers should get on board with more curve friendly titles. Before anyone can mention it, I know all about the obesity problem in America. I believe it’s important to have a healthy diet but there is something to be said for healthy body image. Put any woman in front of a mirror and I can bet you dollars to donuts that she will find every little flaw she believes or perceives. With this kind of track record, what will happen to the next generation of girls coming up?

Former correspondent for Good Morning America Andrea Canning’s report on body image (June 11, 2011) found that a 2009 University of Central Florida study found that nearly half of the 3- to 6-year-old participants said they worried about being fat. Meanwhile, the number of eating disorder hospitalizations for kids under age 12 more than doubled between 2000 and 2006, according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

 Even Project Runway got into the act when they threw designers a curve with plus size clients and new designers were in a quandary because some simply didn’t know how to deal with anything larger than a sample size. The fact is that more than 74% of women in the United States are plus size. If we were in Congress, we’d be the majority. Yet in the real world, we’re marginalized in fashion and in the media. Sure we’ve had a few rays of light, Melissa McCarthy, Queen Latifah and Loni Love but it’s not enough to constitute a sunshine filled day.

It’s time that we’re recognized as something more than just a punch line, second banana or post script to an article. It’s clear that we aren’t going anywhere. For many of us like me, I took the long and hard road to find happiness with my body, I’m a cancer survivor who has been living with MS for 16 years and to round it out I also have Celiac disease. The road to body image acceptance has been a rocky one for me but it’s one that I want to share with others through nonfiction wedding books and big chick lit romances where the big girl gets the guy, I want to see more representation in the print and film media. In the long run it will be a marriage made in heaven.