Plus size models

I think accepting and celebrating obesity is a bit if a trend in the USA. I saw a tv program a few months ago on this very theme.

plus size clothing - good.
model agency for larger women - not quite so sure. Prob ok?

Celebrating large weight - personally I dont think so.
I think some people say that being very overweight has no health implications, but I dont think that I agree with that.

I didn't watch the programme, but have seen photos of the American woman. She, like many other plus-sized models, has a very pretty face, and it's only the rest of her that is obviously overweight.

It's a strange message that's being sent out by programmes like this. I'd have thought that the majority of obese women (and men!) don't actually have the striking facial features necessary to succeed in the modelling world.

Ana I don't think the majority of average sized people have the ^ striking facial features^ or the hight for catwalk work to make it as models either.

They were all nice girls 'bonding' for some for the first time ever having been laughed at all their lives. They were all absolutely plastered in make up. I did feel sorry for some of them. That sad wee (big) one with the blue wig and the rosebud hair band was endearing but you just know life most likely won't go well for her. It was hearing about this subculture that I found interesting rather than the fashion shop stuff.

I didn't see this program, but there was a piece on the morning news a week or so ago saying that "plus size" was anything over size 10 !!! What a load of rubbish. Give me a size 16 with all the wobbly bits in the right places any day.

The programme seemed to be an ad for the three shops featured.

I saw half of this before switching over. I'm not sure why I was so discomfited by it. I didn't like the clothes at all they seemed lacking in style and taste to me but then someone is bound to tell me off about that aren't they? I'm more of a 'draper' than a 'show it all off' person- perhaps that's why.

It certainly seemed to me to be trying to catch the younger market who want styles that are more up to date with the trend,they don't care if stripes go the wrong way or the material is massive big flowers all things which make you look bigger,when most of the average UK ladies are size 16+ I find it hard to believe that Companies cannot produce good fitting clothes and not just the tunic type styles that have been the norm for some plus sized shops over the years.

I don't know if it's celebrating being overweight. I see it as more a case of accepting ourselves for who we are. I'm obese. I have text book perfect blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function etc. I eat a healthy diet and I exercise every day. Would I like to lose weight? Probably. Not because I hate my body or feel less attractive than a thinner woman but because I'd like more choice of shops and I think at my age I need to consider the wear and tear on my joints.

That said if I don't lose weight I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I have been thin....well size 12....but to get to and maintain that size I ate a very unhealthy too low calorie diet.

Plus size is over 10? No wonder so many girls starve themselves into anorexia if that is what they are told.

I am all for there being more well-designed and attractive clothes for those larger than the average size 16 at reasonable prices. It is quite clear that designers and stockists have no notion of what an average is - it means that there are as many women bigger than a size 16 as there are smaller ones. so they could be coining it in if they made things that would tempt all those bigger ladies to buy. Displaying them on large ladies is the way to show how good they look.

Then there might not be so many big women forced to wear droopy pale pink or mudcoloured clothes that they bought years ago. Surely they don't actually choose to wear them?

I saw this programme. I have seen a few things on TV on this subject lately. I have learned that at size 14 I am considered a plus size by some people. It's ridiculous and I take no notice whatsoever but I can see how it would have an impact on younger girls. My teenage granddaughter is size 8-10 but worries that she is not as 'thin' as some of her friends.

I think the problem is that for years clothes have been designed for and modelled by tall thin girls who are nothing like the rest of us. So now the pendulum has swung and we have very over weight models. When will we see women who have ordinary bodies? Neither of the extremes is healthy of course, there's osteoporosis and possible infertility for the underweight and high blood pressure and diabetes for the over. Lets have women who are shapely. (A few older models would be nice as well!)

Size 14 is a plus size? Since when? I think the average size woman in the UK is a size 16 so where does plus size start? Did the programme say?

Fashion designers want models to look like coat hangers so there's little altering required I guess.
If size 16 is average then I would think several sizes higher before you hit so-called Plus size.
Certainly at a size 14 I would be very affronted to be told I was Plus sized!

Actually feeling rather chuffed - bought a pair of size 12 jeans today!!! Can't remember last time I could get into a size 12

The program I watched said that the fashion industry considered anything over size 10 to be plus size, see this on wiki :-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plus-size_clothing

As I said earlier, what a load of tosh.

I haven't been able to get into a size 12 jean since I was - well - 12 years old

At least 25+ years for me...however, I'm absolutely convinced M&S sizes have 'grown' over that time so a size 14 then is a size 16 now

Sorry, got that wrong way round!
Size 14 then is a size 12 now

I think M&S sizes have always been bigger than other makes. I have to get a size smaller in most of their range, especially trousers.

Don't spoil the illusion that I've shrunk Ana
I take their size 14 in jeggings so I suspect it depends on the range you're buying from.

Sizes have definitely changed, and not just at M&S.

Twenty years ago I was an average size 12. I still have two skirts from back then but can barely get into them now, suggesting that I would need at least a 14 now if sizes were still the same. But guess what - these days I need a size 10 or 12, and even a 10 is sometimes too big in some shops!

If you Google plus size clothing lots of sites come up with 'Plus size clothing, size 14-36'.

Evans (remember when it used to be called 'the Outsize shop') clothes start at 14.