It’s Plus against them
Generation of big girl bloggers are ripping up fashion industry rule book that dictates what they should wear
WATERFALL cardigans. Shapeless tent dresses. Flowy T-shirts with butterflies. On the high street these, and more horrors, are crammed into a small section of the back wall labelled “plus size”.
The modelling industry classifies anything over a size eight as “plus” but the average size of a UK woman is size 16.
Which is why so many women with curves have rejected the dreary mainstream options and written their own rules.
A generation of fearless Instagrammers and bloggers have binned the black trousers and burned their horizontal illusion stripe tops. Bethany Rutter has collected the most
FROM PAGE 27 stylish of them together in a gorgeous new book Plus+, celebrating the kind of style you can’t buy off the peg in a shopping centre.
One of them, Sarah Moffat, is originally from Oxford but now lives in Edinburgh. A size 20, 26-year-old Sarah doesn’t care much about what other people think she should and shound not wear.
She created her blog Velveteen Femme after spending years documenting her outfits on Tumblr, posting about her looks and key pieces while promoting the message of self-love.
Sarah said: “What I had to say about plussize style and life as a fat woman wasn’t going to fit into 140 characters.
“Getting compliments on my outfit is great but it’s much more meaningful when someone says I’ve helped them see themselves as valuable and worthy of looking good.”
Zoe Meers, 34, created the blog I Knew I Was Next when she moved to Dundee in 2015. A size 18, she agrees with Sarah that the high street is a no-go zone for plus size women.
She said: “We’re stuck with shops actually removing the plus-size lines from stores and then making the entire range or sizes 24+ online-only. This is a massive step backwards, particularly when, in some instances, the plus-size range was only put into store a year ago or so.”
“The one real advantage the high street has is a physical store where you can try things on.
“If you remove that from the equation, then the weird slogan tees and beige dresses of the plus-size ranges aren’t going to hold up.”
These women flood their Instagram accounts and blog pages with bright and bold prints that curvy women have constantly been told they can’t wear.
Sarah said: “I don’t pay attention to fashion rules – most of them are based on the assumption that looking better means looking thinner, and I’m just not buying it.
The most I hear about fashion rules now is when people are talking about breaking them
“I’m convinced that we all look our best when we love our bodies and the clothes that cover them.”
Zoe agreed, adding: “The most I hear about fashion rules now is when people talk about breaking them. I guess we’re moving in the right direction towards a more ‘wear things you love’ sort of attitude, which is amazing.”
The dire selection on the high street has sent Sarah and Zoe online. Retailers such as ASOS, with their well-regarded Curve range, are perfect for basics, according to Sarah.
High-end plus size designers Navabi are great for those more special, investment pieces. They both also rate Premme – a US-based plus size brand created by fellow blogger Nicolette Mason. Sarah said: “I mainly look to