Sexy, Sophisticated Plus Size Clothing in sizes 12-32

I recently went to the mall with a thin friend. I find the mall a great source of inspiration. Unfortunately this inspiration is usually anger about how much those who operate shops in the mall don't care about fat people or their money. My friend who can fit into small sizes (or medium ones depending on the day) needed sweatpants. I didn't need anything. Not that I could find much had I needed something. This particular mall had a Lane Bryant in the basement, a Hot Topic with a few selected 2x t-shirts, and several generic department stores that put their plus size sections in caves.

Anyway, on that day I got to visit an ostensibly thin person's mall from the perspective of a thin person. Thin women often complain about sizes and fit, so I thought I would put this little outing to a test. We hit four stores. The "hipster" store took tremendous leaps and bounds towards the goal of universally accessible fashion by having one women's XL t-shirt hiding among the XS (let's say it together, now: "Big Deal!) Normally they only carried size XS to Large for women, but if you were chubby you might be able to fit into an XL guys' t-shirt (because guys can be big and buff and women must be as petite). "Generic Jeans" store had jeans with legs just barely big enough for me to get my arms through. So if I ever decided to start walking on my hands and need jeans I know exactly where to go. "Fly by Night High Volume Dance Store" was next. They had chic clothes for Barbie dolls (I mean actual Barbie dolls).

So after all that we got to the only store I will mention by name, Victoria's Secret. I could write a book about how much I hate Victoria's secret (and one day I might). Forget about the fact they can convince women that skimpy uncomfortable underwear is what they want. Let's just talk about size and the fact that I never buy something from them. My thin friend might complain about sizes, how sometimes a small doesn't fit and she has to get a medium.

My sympathy for her is genuine, but limited. The thing is if I can't fit into Victoria's Secret's largest size (which I don't), there is no bigger size for me to try! So thin women can complain that sometimes stores make available clothing in smaller sizes than they should, that (gasp) they may have to buy the next size up. But think of this, YOU HAVE A NEXT SIZE UP. I can't even get anything in these stores in my size at all.

Maybe I'm just a conspiracy theorist but sometimes I think stores keep smaller sizes not only to keep the "non-beautiful people" out of their stores but to make women want to diet, lose weight, buy their clothes. Then they regain the weight, get rid of their thin clothes, go shopping, get frustrated, go on a diet and buy all new thin clothes. When I was 14 I went on a diet purely because I could only wear old lady bathing suits.

Or maybe fat people (especially women) aren't buying the clothes because they hope one day the magic pill will come along and they can buy thin clothes. Sometimes it's hard to tell. Maybe this is the reason they don't cater to us. Maybe we aren't buying? While I myself don't follow fashion trends (choosing to march to my own fashion drummer), wear gently used clothes, and keep clothes until I can no longer wear them, I do it for sustainability but never because I'm fat. I know it's hard for some women to accept the fact that they will never wear something from Victoria's Secret or any of these chic stores. Just remember they shouldn't be so important in your life that you have to change who you are.