by Mairead Walpole

Created on: October 15, 2008

As a plus-size woman, I find it amusing that this is even a debate. Of course plus-sized clothing should be modeled by plus-size models. Standard models are somewhere in the 0 to 4 range and have little body fat. Granted, in recent years we are seeing more models with actual breasts, hips and behinds but they still do not possess the sort of curves (and speed bumps) that the typical plus-size woman has. If I am looking in a catalog for a bathing suit, seeing it on a woman whose thighs don't touch and who can still buy a bra off the rack at a Wal-Mart is not going to help me. I need to see it on a woman who has some of the same figure issues that I have before I am interested in going into a store and trying it on.

There are a few clothing stores whose catalogs feature so-called plus-sized models in their photos shoots but I would debate whether these models are actually plus-sized. Most stores classify a size 14 as the start of the plus-size range and the plus-sized model is typically between a 10 and a 14. While you aren't likely to want to buy a woman who wears these sizes a sandwich to prevent starvation, they are still not the size of most plus-sized woman in the United States.

Buying clothes as a plus-sized woman is difficult. Buying professional business attire for a reasonable cost can be a challenge on par with finding the Holy Grail. I have found that the fashion industry assumes that if you wear plus-sizes then you must be roughly round in shape and that no effort is truly made to create an hourglass silhouette. It is as though the fashion industry just makes a larger pattern for whatever they are cranking out for the masses. Or they decide that making a boxy shape will suffice.

While the non-plus size segment of the population would not prefer to see catalogs with true plus-sized models showing the clothing, I believe that plus sized consumers would like to see how the clothes would fit on someone closer to their own size. Does that cute jacket flatter a pear shape or emphasize the lack of balance between the shoulders and the hips? How does that skirt drape and look at a knee length on a 20W as opposed to the size 10 who would typically be modeling it? Should anyone over a size 2 really wear that particular pattern? These are the questions that would be answered by having actual plus-sized models model plus-sized clothing. Perhaps the designers would be encouraged to actually design for plus-sized woman if they had to display their clothing on a real plus-sized woman.

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