I was recently in the store of a well-known sportswear brand. There were two saleswomen who took a while to serve me even though no one was there. After searching for a while and choosing the dress that would suit me, I approached one of them (the youngest). With a condescending half-smile he said to me: “We don't have sizes that big.” In most stores I'm a size 40 or L. I'm left there with my leggings, my old coat and my knitted sweater: “I'll take a look According to the website, I know they're my size.” Another half-smile, half-turn, and the girl returned to her companion to do nothing. Why did they treat me like that? It's very simple: There is nothing that arouses more desire than exclusion. This is neither a traumatic experience nor a form of crying. If I write it down, it's because it shows how part of the world works. Specifically: fashion.
I wish I had had a youth where my body (then quite thin but curvy) wasn't a cause for ridicule or shame. I wish I had an environment where having hips wasn't a laughing matter. And most of all, I want to use this time to live it without complexes and without crying because I didn't fit into the clothes of those brands that only designed pencil skirts at the time.
Many years ago, when I was between 36 and 38, I walked into the store of a designer who has since moved on to other things and asked to try on a dress. The saleswoman (also young, but older than me at the time) told me that I shouldn't do it because I would break it. Rudeness of this magnitude would only be expressed to a twenty year old. I insisted and tried on the dress. Of course I didn't break it. But as a costume designer I know says, “Your size is one thing, and the size that fits you is another.” And I would never have bought anything from a store that tried to make you feel guilty because you have a size larger than 36. Is it any wonder this brand went bankrupt? Not me.
At the same time, a classmate went to great lengths to lose weight to fit into a dress (who hasn't done that stupid thing before?). The girl had and still has a round face. No matter how much weight she loses, she will always look like she weighs more than she actually does. He went to the store of one of these brands, where the designer releases the same collection year after year. She fit into the dress she requested, to the chagrin of the two shopkeepers, who looked at her as if she were spotting the disfigured face of the Phantom of the Opera. “How upset the boss will be when he finds out.” I say “the boss,” not to mention the name of the designer in question, a man who, I assume, is committed to the destruction of overweight people. The girl took the dress (I don't understand why) and cried bitterly about the abuse her admired designer's staff had subjected her to.
Shortly afterwards, Karl Lagerfeld signed with H&M to release a collection with them. Premium for H&M and cheap for Lagerfeld. The late emperor's wrath was unleashed when he saw that they had made sizes for people with mammoth proportions who could wear up to a size 44. In his own words, his clothes were designed “for slim people.” And although it is true that each (and every single one) has a silhouette that more or less suits a type of garment, it is no less true that the person who must first feel comfortable with a garment is its wearer . My classmate purchased a dress from this collection in the largest size available, paying tribute to the late genius.
I would like to use this time to live it without complexes and without crying because I didn't fit into the clothes of those brands that only designed pencil skirts at the time.
Fatphobia in the fashion industry is so bad that some brands are separating the plus-size collection from the regular size to keep those undemanding bodies out of their aisles. Most brands do not offer designs above certain dimensions. Above are more samples. When you're fat you have to hide. Designers will take into account that you can only dress like your elderly mother. Thanks to this prejudice, Shein has reached so many closets. Before Shein, tall women were not allowed to look or act attractive. It's a topic worthy of an essay: the elitism of the textile industry is creating a wave of pollution through low-quality and oversized garments. Quite a few alternative clothing brands offer plus sizes in their catalogs, but not all plus size women want to dress alternatively.
A designer or brand should fundamentally not care who wears their creations. But they care because their customers are the ones who create the brand image. When it comes to luxury brands, the cut is clear. As much as I want to buy something from Dolce & Gabbana's Sicilian Carreto collection, I can't. I can't, it's not good for me to save several thousand euros to buy a piece of clothing. The cheapest is over 300 euros. I am automatically excluded. If I could buy a top from this collection for, say, 30 euros, it would be in a pile of hard-to-combine items. I would wear it more or less, but it would be a different garment, not the garment reserved for the most beautiful occasions. He would end up taking me to the beach, the fruit store, or the gym. It would be an everyday item of clothing. And luxury, if it isn't already something, is commonplace. Luxury is rare, inaccessible, distant. The luxury is getting older and not gaining weight. Lose weight at Buchinger. Drink an antioxidant tea with dishes purchased from Cristina Oria. Luxury is what we don't have.
While preparing this article, I went through several escort sites. The word escort is already above the word prostitute. There was a diversity of sizes and bodies in these catalogs of voluptuous but ordinary women. However, all of them stated that they weighed no more than 56 kilos. The fattest one I found weighed exactly 56 kilos and was 1.60 meters tall. I assure you that this woman weighed less than 120 pounds. For a man to rent a body, a woman cannot weigh more than 120 pounds. Men who rent corpses want to sleep with an Irina Shayk.
How does size become a luxury?
While the majority of women have a clothing size of 40 to 42, a minority of adults have clothing sizes between 34 and 38. Except for those who stick to this size due to their constitution, the rest increase due to factors such as age, genetics, etc Weight to the modern lifestyle, which consists of walking from one place to another and consuming highly processed products, the composition of which is 40% a mixture of flour, animal fat and oil. For snacks and sweets, this proportion can increase by up to 60%. However, most middle and upper class brands do not suit the majority of the female population. These brands will mainly live on perfumes and accessories. Their designers often look down on women who are not thin. They don't aspire to great fortune like Chris Xu (Shein), Amancio Ortega (Inditex) or Arthur Ryan (Primark). They aspire to be the designers that Xu, Ortega or Ryan's daughters buy from.
Clothing should be worn, protected from bad weather and adapted to the different social situations in which we live. Fashion is something different. Fashion is a dream that you either fit into or you don't. It is your choice to accept it as reality or realize that it is just a dream. As one designer consulted for this article says, “The dress has to adapt to you, not you to the dress. The only thing left was for you to be traumatized by a rag.”