NYC Style Spot   +  TIME

Thinking A Tad too Much?

Keeping busy is sometimes no sweet business. The better weather is here and a million reasons to drop it all, find a great spot in a park and just let the sunny rays provide you with some needed vitamin D (at least that is what we're told). However if like me you have to work full time, train for half a marathon, write a blog part time, and even consider other writing/creative projects in the meantime, hours and hours are taken of one's day and most of the time hardly anything gets done.

I'm currently fascinated by a resurge in the clothes-size debate. The lovely Retro Chick has been featured in the Sunday Times in an article about vanity sizing, "a ploy in which stores flatter women by making clothes bigger so they think they are buying a smaller size" says the Sunday Times (UPDATE: also featured in the Daily Mail online). Well this is not a surprise and any shopper will tell you of their nightmare when figuring out what size to go for in each store they visit. However, this is an interesting article because of the unknown extents some sizes have been stretched or reduced to to suit, what? a market? the public desires? or fashion bosses too eager to sell their dresses?

Belle Robinson, owner of fashion brand Jigsaw, is a former model but now happily wears a size 16 and talking to Times Online sees no point in extreme dieting or other sacrifices for a thinner figure. She is satisfied with her body and that is admirable, because we all know who cruel we can be to our sanctuaries.

My opinion? that shoppers shouldn't be conned into thinking they wear a size less in a certain store. I believe everybody should love the shape they come in, more brands should cater for fuller women as women are naturally curvy, a lot are tall and require bigger sizes. Big does not mean unfashionable nor does it mean "lie to me about my clothes size".

However, I'm also getting tired of hearing anorexia references about women wearing a small size, say a uk 6 (EU 34) . Whereas certain celebrity obsession with the elusive and unhealthy size zero is a certain sick tendency, with curvy women there are also small women who have to endure being accused of malnourishment and eating disorders, on an every day basis. This has strangely become somehow accepted chat in stores where loud statements such as "this dress can only be worn by an anorexic" are expressed right next to a girl that had just bought that same dress in that same size. Looks full of disdain and disapproval are directed at said girl.

Spring is here. The world keeps turning, ash clouds are appearing and not only are stores imposing a certain look on us, us women are still doing it to each other with no regrets, it seems.

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net