My favorite store to shop at locally is Torrid which is about a fifteen minutes drive to the local mall. Shopping at Torrid is fantastic but can quickly get expensive. The tops are almost never under $40. Two tops and a pair of jeans? Be prepared to pay a good $150. It would be nice if I could go into any normal store- GAP, Target, Walmart, Old Navy, etc and find some fashionable, affordable clothes that actually come in my size.
I just had a shoot which I had to run out to get some razor blades for (I can't wait to show you guys the photos when I get them!) and decided to see if I could find anything appropriately emo for the shoot or anything candy colored for an upcoming shoot. I started down the clothing aisle at Target and saw some amazingly cute clothes. I looked up and found the sign titled "plus size" (which was right beside "maternity". Nice Target.. nice.), however, when I got to the sign, I couldn't actually find the plus size section. After asking a sales attendant I was directed to a single row of round racks mashed between pregnancy pants and clearance racks. I was told that there were actually two rows, but upon investigation I found this to be untrue. What I found were T-shirts, tank tops, and a few sweaters. Ultimately I went to the checkout counter with a single tank top.
It's a pattern. If there are cute clothes, they will not be in your size. If there is a plus size section at all it is likely to be a fraction of the size of the "normal" sized section (if they call one plus size shouldn't they call the other other negative size or something equally ridiculous?). Nevermind that over half of women in the US wear a larger size than the 10 or 12 they usually stock, if you can find clothes in your size, apparently, you're not allowed to be stylish. Walmart, for example, has a fairly large plus size section.. but if you think you're going to find anything cute in there, you have another thing coming to you. They specialize in loony toons T's and bag shirts. I'm not saying that you don't occasionally find a gem, but for the most part you're going to spend far longer trying to pick out an outfit than any person who wears a size 10 or lower. Or you're going to go to Torrid and pay three times as much.
Fat people, remember, it is your duty to embody the stereotypes that people place on you by looking slovenly and unfashionable. Thankfully, that's not hard to do. Looking trendy is so difficult that it would be hard not to embody those stereotypes.
On that note I'd like to leave you with Joy Nash's Fat Rant for those of you who haven't already seen this fantastic video.
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Dreaming of Wheels
I finally dreamed of myself in a wheelchair . How we view ourselves is often hard. What we think of ourselves, even how we picture ourse...
Hey I know how it feels to not be able to find nice clothes that fit, I work at Lane Bryant, and they have (amongst the usual loose boxy mu-mu type clothing) some really cute plus size clothes and some killer sales, just thought I'd let you know in case you were interested in checking it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sammi :-) I do occasionally wander into lane bryant although, to date, I've only bought a pair of jeans and a piece of lingerie which I wear with a cami as a top. :D
ReplyDelete:D i recently got a corset top for $10 on sale, i love the sale rack there
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I came across this post today. I went to the mall this morning with a $50 gift card for a department store that my boss gave me for Christmas. I originally was going to try to find shoes. As I've become accustomed to, I did not find anything within a reasonable price range for my size 10 feet. I wasn't even going to bother with clothing, so I tried the lingerie. Bras are one of the harder things to find for me, and the two I currently have in wearable condition don't fit right and are super uncomfortable. I was really upset after not being able to fit into the size I thought I was, and not being able to find the next size up. Even the Spanx-brand didn't have my size. I walked out, passing racks of cute and sexy lingerie I'll never be able to fit into, trying not to cry. I ranted for a while to my boyfriend about how hard it is to be a woman and need larger sizes of anything and everything. If there's a cute style that would be flattering on someone with a figure like mine, they don't make it in my size. If there is a plus size section (personally I've had this experience many times at Torrid, too) then the items available, in my opinion, often aren't flattering on plus size girls. Anyway. I appreciated the post because I've been feeling down about this kind of thing today, and it's nice to not feel alone :)
ReplyDeletealso has size 10 feet :D yes.. shoe shopping can certainly be as hard as clothes shopping! I'm sorry you had so much trouble.. and you are definitely not alone
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