I live on a small island, Tortola BVI, and it is very difficult to get
clothing that fit me on a regular basis. Being a full figure woman and
I have to purchase Plus Size Clothing. On a few occasions I had to
travel to St. Thomas USVI to get my cloths. There is a store there that
I enjoy shopping in, Ashley Stewart. The first time I went to that
store, I spent almost an hour! Ashley
Stewart
is not longer there but
another store called Marianne is now in their spot, they also sell plus
size clothing.
I am always complaining to the local store owners, here in the BVI that
they need to purchase more plus size clothing. Many times I see
something that I like and they don't have my size. I remember one
particular experience that I had in one store, I saw an item that I
liked and I asked the store attendant if they had my size in that item.
She responded positively. I was very excited, for a moment, what she
showed was not what I wanted and it definitely not attractive or sexy!
Does that mean that full figure women are not supposed to be sexy????
My main concern when purchasing dresses and tops is that I can wear a
bra.
My mom and I don't like wearing sleeveless tops and dresses. I cannot
remember what her reason is but my reason is that my arms are very big
and I try to hide them as much as I can. Since President Obama was
elected, it is public knowledge that his wife wears a lot of sleeveless
cloths at both formal and informal events and she looks appropriately
dressed at all her events. Of course women tend to follow the fashion
of other celebrity women that they admire and I have notice many
televisions hosts, my friends' etc showing off their arms regardless of
the size of their arms.
I am a fan of Mo'Nique and she recently lost a lot of weight, she wears
a lot of sleeveless dresses on her show she looks fabulous!
I recently purchased a cute sleeveless dress for a new local store
called Other
Woman. I can't understand why the store was given this
name. They sell strictly plus size clothing. When I wore my dress, I
felt really attractive, confident and sexy - I allowed that positive
feeling to overcome me and reject the negative feeling that I was
overweight and my arms are large.
My other problem is purchasing clothing is getting a good fitting bra
and panties. Again we are very limited in the BVI. My daughter and I
purchased some bras online and they fit great. The thing about
purchasing online is that you have to be as accurate as possible in
your measurements.
I purchased some garments from an online store in the UK, some years
ago, and they were all a little too big for me. I had to eventually
alter them. The other problem about purchasing clothing online, is that
the item may look great but when I actually try it on, I may not like
how it looks on me.
What is Plus
Size Clothing? Plus size clothing tends to refer to
clothing made for women who wear a size 14 (in the US) or 16 (in the
UK) and bigger.
Early plus size clothing could be hard to find, and many women had to
order by catalog. Moreover a trend existed toward creating blousy or
"tented" looks that did nothing to celebrate the figures and beauty of
women with lots of curves. This sensibility has gradually changed as
many manufacturers now realize that clothing that fits and is not
overly large tends to be much more flattering than clothing that hides
the figure.
What is Plus
Size petites? The term "plus size petites" refers to
clothing for women who are both full-figured and short in stature. The
hemlines of arms, legs, and waists of such garments are shorter than
average clothing and the clothes are also cut to fit larger sizes.
These special sizes can be difficult to find, particularly in
brick-and-mortar stores.
Plus size petites are a relatively new size category of the fashion
market, having come into common usage only since about the year 2000.
Prior to that, plus sized clothing was made to a standard length in
nearly every case. The expectation was that shorter women could simply
hem pant legs and shirt sleeves, usually the most problematic hemlines
for them. Pants were sometimes offered in plus size tall because
designers perceived that many plus sized women were tall and that,
while a too-long leg could be hemmed, there wasn't much to be done with
a hemline that was too short.
