Why Kelly Can't Find Clothes that Fit
After three plus years, I have finally fixed the RSS feed on my website, and I can blog again!
I occasionally receive emails from readers of my book, and I am always pleasantly gobsmacked that someone has taken the time and trouble to track me down, generally to thank me.
The email from Kelly H. that I received today said:
"So often I think it is ME that is shaped wrong or that I'm too fat for clothes to fit comfortably and look nice. I don't hate my body, in fact, I think I am beautiful. But I also don't feel I've found clothes that express me in any way."
Well, Kelly, you are not alone and there are good reasons why you can't find attractive ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes that fit. Learning to sew well or using a dressmaker is one of the best investments that you can make towards your happiness and self-esteem.
The best kept secret in the fashion world is that RTW is not really RTW. Most purchased clothing does not fit anyone well, because it is made to fit dress forms instead of real people. Dress forms are usually thin-ish, even in plus sizes, and they are very uniformly proportioned. There are no G cups, love handles, hanging bellies, hyperextended calves, or ANY of the more than 80+ nameable figure variations on standardized industry dress forms. No dress form assumes that people can be 4'5" or 6'2", either.
"Designers," if they ever fit anyone at all, use these very regular dress forms, or in high end lines they might use a fit model, who is a woman whose measurements match their intended market, in other words, her measurements are close to their ideal: no prominent backsides or hump backs to found on these ladies! The average consumer, however, and especially the plus size consumer, has plenty of figure variations! Of those 80-some nameable variations from the ideal, I have over 40!!!!
Most perfectly normal consumers have dozens of figure variations, and that number increases with body size and age! It's completely normal to have these figure variations (don't anyone dare call them "flaws!")
It's so freaky to NOT have figure variations that some women can make a living just because they have figures that look like dress forms: we call them "models."
This is one of the many reasons why nothing that anyone buys will fit properly, off the rack. Some people might sometimes get lucky. Some people aren't too fussy about how their clothes fit, and most consumers wouldn't know how to recognize good fit if it bit them. Knits will stretch to at least cover any shape of body, but not attractively!
More later on the consequences of ill-fitting RTW, and some solutions.
After three plus years, I have finally fixed the RSS feed on my website, and I can blog again!
I occasionally receive emails from readers of my book, and I am always pleasantly gobsmacked that someone has taken the time and trouble to track me down, generally to thank me.
The email from Kelly H. that I received today said:
"So often I think it is ME that is shaped wrong or that I'm too fat for clothes to fit comfortably and look nice. I don't hate my body, in fact, I think I am beautiful. But I also don't feel I've found clothes that express me in any way."
Well, Kelly, you are not alone and there are good reasons why you can't find attractive ready-to-wear (RTW) clothes that fit. Learning to sew well or using a dressmaker is one of the best investments that you can make towards your happiness and self-esteem.
The best kept secret in the fashion world is that RTW is not really RTW. Most purchased clothing does not fit anyone well, because it is made to fit dress forms instead of real people. Dress forms are usually thin-ish, even in plus sizes, and they are very uniformly proportioned. There are no G cups, love handles, hanging bellies, hyperextended calves, or ANY of the more than 80+ nameable figure variations on standardized industry dress forms. No dress form assumes that people can be 4'5" or 6'2", either.
"Designers," if they ever fit anyone at all, use these very regular dress forms, or in high end lines they might use a fit model, who is a woman whose measurements match their intended market, in other words, her measurements are close to their ideal: no prominent backsides or hump backs to found on these ladies! The average consumer, however, and especially the plus size consumer, has plenty of figure variations! Of those 80-some nameable variations from the ideal, I have over 40!!!!
Most perfectly normal consumers have dozens of figure variations, and that number increases with body size and age! It's completely normal to have these figure variations (don't anyone dare call them "flaws!")
It's so freaky to NOT have figure variations that some women can make a living just because they have figures that look like dress forms: we call them "models."
This is one of the many reasons why nothing that anyone buys will fit properly, off the rack. Some people might sometimes get lucky. Some people aren't too fussy about how their clothes fit, and most consumers wouldn't know how to recognize good fit if it bit them. Knits will stretch to at least cover any shape of body, but not attractively!
More later on the consequences of ill-fitting RTW, and some solutions.
Labels: apparel sizing, clothing fit, design for plus sizes, plus size sewing, plus sizes, sewing, size acceptance, why clothes don't fit
posted by Barbara Deckert Couture at 4:09 PM
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