Looking at Tim Gunn makes me smile. The "make it work" design mentor from Project Runway always has such a great goofy-looking grin on his face, I just can't help it. Off the runway, Gunn's speaking up for plus-size women in a new interview with Marie Claire, saying that when it comes to shopping, they deserve better options:
"Have you seen most of the plus-size sections out there? It's horrifying," said Gunn. "Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived. You can't just take a size 8 and make it larger."
Tim's right. When bigger girls head to the mall, they are pretty much limited to two mainstream stores: Torrid and Lane Bryant. Two stores. I don't know about you, but I can't imagine any fashionable "normal" sized girl being confined to two stores and being OK with it.
From a girl who's been there, trust me -- it really stinks.
Over the last few years, I've lost give or take 60 pounds. I'm happy and blessed to be where I am now, but I'll never forget how hard it was to be "fashionable" before I dropped the weight. When I had an event coming up, I would start shopping for it weeks if not months before. I knew that finding an outfit wouldn't be a one-trip sort of thing.
When you're bigger, you pray that a store will still have something in your size when you get there. You feel defeated when you can't find something, which used to just make me eat, and if you're like me, you end up finding a "little black dress" that you wear to everything fancy.
Tim's right, clothes from a lot of mainstream stores can't just be "made larger" to accommodate the plus-size market. When you're bigger, everything's bigger. From the girls to your hips and thighs, the clothes you wear need to accommodate that. There's a whole slew of women in the world shopping for a larger size, and in my mind, there's no reason why more brands aren't trying to take advantage of the shoppers.
In the Marie Claire interview, Tim says he's thinking about designing for the larger market. There's no doubt in my mind that if he does, he'll have an instantaneous fan base.
Are you a plus-size? Do you find it hard to find "trendy" clothes?
Image via Lifetime