Plus Size Wars

Has our desire to be PC gone too far?

I was watching Channel 4 the other evening when a program called Plus Sized Wars caught my attention. I was excited. As you all know I am creating clothes for the curvier woman with my perfect black leggings.

After spending the day rushing around central London I had spotted pretty much every girl in either active wear, yoga pants or black leggings so I was quite interested in seeing what this program had to say about Plus Size fashion and where it was going.

At the beginning when I saw Sir Philip Green on the front row of the Evans catwalk show I felt quite excited, finally a high street brand that offer affordable luxury to young wanna be fashionistas had actually given some thought to the curvier girl, normally unheard of on the catwalk at London Fashion Week. I have to admit the fashion they were showing for a size 16-18 seemed a lot hipper and definitely looked like it could be a winner but as the program went on the subject matter grew darker as the words "plus size" were replaced with "fat".

I am not one to judge but as a life coach and somebody who promotes a healthy lifestyle and works with people to combat eating disorders,  it seemed to me like the program was talking about two extremes, the starving stick insect and the cake loving fat girl neither category I put in plus size.

By the time the program introduced the American blogger, plus size model and make up artist Tess Holliday with a very pretty face and an enormous social media following at a good size 24 plus wearing super skimpy underwear  I had to wonder how could she be the new face of fashion for the masses?

I truly think if we normalise morbid obesity and fashion becomes much poorer quality and only about only making money at any cost, we are heading for a very unhealthy society on many levels. Should these plus size brands be pandering to and exploiting the obese’s problems by ignoring the elephant; carrying excessive weight over a long period is not good for you or should we recognise that a healthy plus size girl, we all come in different shapes and sizes can be beautiful, fashionable and a reality of modern day life?

You only had to watch all the very big girls queuing up and crying when they met their idol Tess, a genuine comfort, to conclude being fat, in my experience as a talk therapist, is often linked back to childhood bullying and abuse, excessive emotional eating that kind of almost isolates these individuals into groups causing them to stick together in the same way drunks and other addicted people do.