WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2010


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C9 Design world makes some space for the fuller figure fashion from C1


continues to discriminate, an ambivalent popular culture and a weight-conscious, fitness-focused White House that togeth- er have delivered a singularly mixed mes- sage to the obese: Be happy and proud of who you are. Who you are is not good. “It shouldn’t be about obesity, but it al-


ways comes back to that,” says Michele Weston, a plus-size fashion consultant and founding fashion director of the groundbreaking Mode magazine. “That’s what people see.” The Internet is pulsating with blogs giving voice to frustrations, as well as of- fering positive reinforcement, health ad- vice and style information. Some read like mini-seminars in women’s studies. Some are filled with humor. Still others are personal boast pages in which the cre- ators publicly declare themselves fat and fabulous — and await reader affirmation. They do not have to wait long. The women have little desire to be


slender. They are uninterested in preven- tative weight loss to stave off diabetes, high blood pressure or any other disease linked to obesity. Some are even un- convinced that their weight predisposes them to such conditions. They do not want clothes that make them look thinner. If another designer of- fers up a slimming wrap dress or some swimsuit that promises to make them look 10 pounds lighter, the situation could turn ugly. They want Fashion. Fun, fast and disposable or luxurious, glamor- ous and sexy. If a trendy silhouette makes them look bigger, so what? As they see it, big isn’t bad. Besides, they are big. “People think every plus-size woman is yearning to lose weight. We have body imperfections the same way other wom- en do, but we feel great about ourselves,” says New York-based designer Monif Clarke, who showed her sportswear col- lection in the week’s finale runway pres- entation. “People are willing to call them- selves fat. I was talking and I said to my boyfriend, ‘Fat girls like me ....’ I might be fat, I still want to look great.” Accept them or not. Just don’t block their hustle. This is not a tipping point in the long


struggle to change how the broader cul- ture views plus-size women. There hasn’t been a seismic shift toward acceptance. Instead, this is an angry moment — a mad-as-hell, give-me-my-jeggings-and- stop-telling-me-to-lose-weight moment. It’s the rise of the “fatshionista.”


The big breakthrough


How did it all begin? It’s hard to pin- point the moment a wind begins to blow, but the fashion unrest became obvious in 2009, when apple-shaped singer Beth Ditto posed naked on the cover of the British pop culture magazine Love and was declared a style icon by both the mainstream fashion industry and the plus-size community. That same year, Glamour was lionized for publishing a modest image of a nude model with a bel- ly roll. This year, rotund, Oscar-nominated ac- tress Gabourey Sidibe’s talent, self-confi- dence and effervescence propelled her into edgy fashion magazines — her ab- sence from the Vanity Fair starlet edition notwithstanding. Designer Mark Fast hired curvy mannequins for his London catwalk presentation, and unlike the last time he did so, no one had a hissy fit about working with plus-size models. The voluptuous Crystal Renn has seen her stock rise as the fashion industry re- assesses its use of emaciated models. And now, on Day 3 of FFFW, dozens of


large-size women are gathered for a con- versation about everything from the gaps in the plus-size lacy lingerie market to the need for more large-size club clothes that are short, tight and deliciously inappro- priate. “We are sexy, sexual beings, and so of- ten designers are only creating work clothes,” says comedian Erica Watson, whose show is called “Fat Bitch!” Of the half-dozen women leading the


discussions, all were large-size except one: designer Yuliya Raquel. The owner of Igigi, a San Francisco-based clothing company, is of medium height and build. But in many ways, she was the hero in the room because she has brought the rare combination of a custom-dressmak- er’s technical skill and a fashion aficiona- do’s creativity to a line of clothing that ranges from size 12 to 32. The strapless wedding gown she presented in the finale show was an elegant mix of fairy-tale em- broidery and sophisticated sex appeal. Raquel founded her company 10 years ago, she says, after a shopping trip with her plus-size mother left her stunned and depressed by the limited options. Since then, she has learned that it’s


more expensive to design for plus-size customers — and not merely because a size 22 requires more fabric than a size 4. The process is more labor-intensive. Larger women all carry their extra weight differently — in the hips, in the bustline, in the belly. That must be accounted for in the designs. And the patterns can’t be systematically graded upward. “When you create a garment for size 6 or 8, the ratio of shoulders to bust and hip are fairly constant,” Raquel says. “If you take that pattern and try to grade it up for a plus-size woman, you have a shoulder fitting a football player. A woman doesn’t grow that way. The shoulders stay the same.”


Since Raquel launched her collection, the overall offerings have improved dra- matically. Still, the selection of fashion- forward merchandise isn’t keeping up with demand. Consider that almost half of black women are obese, as are about one-third of white women and Hispanic


PHOTOS BY HELAYNE SEIDMAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POST LIVING EXTRA-LARGE: It’s not the typical fashion show audience as models display gowns by Jewel Shannon Couture at Full Figured Fashion Week in Manhattan.


STRUTTING THEIR STUFF: On the runway, from left,a Monif C. swimsuit and gowns by Bella Donna,Qristyl Frasier Designs and Osun Designs prove that plus-size fashions can be as bold and sexy as the women who wear them. Elsewhere, the fashion industry has begun to respond to a backlash against its use of emaciated models.


women. The average American woman wears a 14. Yet Lane Bryant, the Goliath retailer


offering sizes 14-28, believes its customer is most concerned with comfort, then fit and finally style. “She’s not there on the cutting edge of fashion,” says President Brian Woolf. “She might be a year be- hind.” Don’t let the fatshionistas hear you say


that, buddy. “The plus-size customer is not like


everyone; she is everyone,” counters Stephanie Sobel, president of OneStop- Plus.com, a virtual mall for plus-size cus- tomers and a division of the same French conglomerate that owns Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. “Sometimes she wants investment clothes; sometimes she wants the hottest fad.” They want rock star mini-dresses, bo- hemian maxi-dresses and, yes, jeggings — the Dr. Frankenstein splicing of jeans and leggings. To answer that call, the plus-size mar-


ket is beginning to adopt more of a fun, fashion-first attitude. Ditto created a line — heavy on ’80s glamour — for the Brit- ish plus-size retailer Evans. And compa- nies such as Forever 21, famous for its cheap takes on designer style, have ex- panded their size ranges. Trend hunters for the plus-size market scour Europe for ideas. Clarke, who launched her Monif C. col-


lection five years ago, has been the go-to designer for plus-size women looking for figure-hugging, sexy clothes. She works out of a 300-square-foot, white-walled space on the 10th floor of one of the many nondescript towers in Manhattan’s Gar- ment District. Mounted on the wall just above a long rack of clothes is a row of magazine covers: Glamour, InStyle, Es- sence. They have all featured Clarke’s work, which makes her a rarity. Clarke has broken through the size divide. On a steamy Friday afternoon, she’s wearing one of her distinctive looks for spring: a body-conscious jersey maxi- dress in a lava-lamp print with navy in- sets at the bodice and a hey-baby neck- line. One of her signatures this season is a


convertible dress made of heavy jersey that highlights every curve and gives a woman no place to hide any insecurities about being called fat. Only the self-confident need cross her threshold. And there is a line. At the head of it is Heather Sells, a tall, tanned bru- nette from Nashville with a voluptuous Christina Hendricks figure. She is given a lesson in stylish swaddling by Clarke’s right-hand man, Brandon Coates. Sells chooses a floor-length version in pump- kin orange and declares it perfect for a football game.


Plus-size politics


For decades, a community of rebels has lobbied society for fat acceptance. They’ve taken Seventh Avenue and Madi- son Avenue to task for adopting such nar- row definitions of beauty that they barely allow size 12s into high fashion’s glossy inner sanctum. These folks claimed a modest victory in 1997, when Mode launched. Until its demise in 2001, it was the aspirational style manual for which so many large-size ladies had longed. Nothing comparable has replaced it. After 13 years of specializing in large- size fashion events and being a frustrated shopper, Gwen DeVoe, a tall, zaftig Afri- can American former model, created FFFW. “After attending a lot of different


events, it became painfully obvious that two huge things were missing: I was look- ing at clothes that didn’t fit me, and on models who didn’t look like me,” DeVoe says. “What I’m trying to do is bridge the gap between consumers and designers. To let them know that they have other choices beyond what’s on the Internet and in catalogues.” During FFFW, models dashed around


the city for last-minute fittings; designers obsessed about finding the right accesso- ries; and catwalks were prepped. But buyers from Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue weren’t nestled shoulder- to-shoulder in the front rows looking for the next great thing. The dominant fash- ion glossies didn’t dispatch teams of edi- tors. If there was any medium that was


courted, it was the bloggers. FFFW was operating on its own terms. Lane Bryant, one of the week’s spon- sors, brought in two dozen bloggers “to talk to us about the plus-size customer and whether she has been discriminated against,” Woolf says. Many had been espe- cially outraged when Lane Bryant recent- ly ran into roadblocks trying to buy air- time on Fox and ABC for a lingerie com- mercial. What did the network suits have against plus-size cleavage? Eventually, the company settled on a time slot with Fox but not with ABC. The company, however, is in a quanda-


ry over whether it should step into the current cultural contretemps. “We are a retailer, a business. It’s not in our DNA to lead a cause. But it’s a topic of conversa- tion: Should we be doing more?” Woolf says. Making more fashion, perhaps. A gen-


eration of plus-size women does not want to wait until it loses weight to get the clothes it covets. For most of these wom- en, weight loss isn’t on their agenda. In fact, when comedian Watson admits to having signed on with celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels, gasps of dismay whoosh across the FFFW audience. Michaels’ s bullying ways on “The Big-


gest Loser” have led more than one blog- ger to accuse her of fat hatred. Golda Po- retsky posted an entire confessional on her blog from a former contestant who described her experience on the show as emotionally demeaning and physically damaging. Poretsky is a plus-size woman who has called a personal moratorium on weight loss and has become a body ac- ceptance evangelist: “The concept of health at every size, connecting with your hunger, [loving] your body, those types of behaviors are healthier for people than the dieting paradigm we’re in.” Television has given rise to a whole


genre of reality shows that some charac- terize as fat porn: “The Biggest Loser,” “Dance Your Ass Off,” “Ruby” and a host of TLC mini-documentaries about the morbidly obese. “You’re shaming fat peo- ple on television,” Clarke says. “This is not okay.


“Sure, they sign up for it, and I don’t want to make it sound like I’m being neg- ative about their choices, but if you’ve been made to feel ashamed about your- self for so long . . . they feel like their lives don’t start until they lose this weight,” Clarke says. “The only perspective repre- sented is: Fat is bad.” What some currently see as the most distressing assault on their dignity is first lady Michelle Obama with her fight against childhood obesity. “I’m really appalled at the first lady’s campaign. I think it will do more harm than good,” says Linda Bacon, author of “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.” “I applaud her for some of the specific programs, but when it’s done in the name of obesity, it’s going to backfire on her.”


Bacon was one of about a dozen re- searchers and authors who signed a letter to Obama voicing concern that her em- phasis on weight was stigmatizing a population rather than dealing with the broader health issues. “I think it’s great for kids to have a better connection to their food,” Bacon says. But by focusing on weight, “you’re teaching kids that they did something wrong to get the body they have.” The women do not dismiss decades of


scientific research on obesity, but they are distrustful of the conclusions as well as the methodology. They know they ex- ercise; they feel healthy. One young wom- an shared that she was a vegan and has always been a big girl. Mostly, however, they argue that everyone should eat bet- ter and move more — not just the over- weight. So why point a finger at fat peo- ple?


So stop telling them to lose weight. And start shipping this fall’s minimalist coats, sexy pantsuits and belted Prada- style dresses in size 14 and upward. They don’t want your condemnation, but they don’t need your approval. As one size-24 woman with a cascade of dark hair and Hollywood sunglasses shouted out to her plus-size comrades, “I have always been fabulous.”


givhanr@washpost.com


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