After reading about clothing retailer Forever21.com upcoming launch of plus sizes on there website in May and in some of there other stores but NOT there flagship store it made me wonder what in the world is it going to take for the mainstream retailers to realize there are bigger women out there and that providing them with trendy fashionable clothing can help their companies bottom line.

As a business man I understand test marketing and soft product launching, but when it comes to larger sizes we have seen reports for years about what the average dress size of women and in some cases men is yet companies are still “testing” to see if they can sell to fat folks.

Years ago it was estimated that the clothing for women over a size 14 would account for $12 billion in annual sales by 2010.  At the time the sales figures were around $5 billion. What part of numbers like those do the buyers for forever21 not understand?  Read more...

Dear Desperate Plus Size Shopper,

It has come to my attention that over the past few decades that finding fashionable, affordable clothing in the stores has been the subject of much frustration and angst for you.  Between dealing with clerks that have no clue about dressing you to being subjected to dresses that would make a better tent than a dress for that I apologize.

I like you thought with the popularity of the Internet that we could just throw our hands up and use this new technology to find what we want without the problems we faced going into department stores.  Alas, four years into our journey I find that the love that we find using this new technology comes only from others like us and not from mainstream clothing and marketing venues.  Read more...

“According to a recent online poll 80% of men of men ages 18-50 years and older, are attracted to women that are curvy and voluptuous such as Jennifer Lopez or Queen Latifah, and an additional 15% are attracted to average bodies.”

In my years of dating and marriage I have only dated one woman that was below a size 14. When I read that now most men prefer larger women I actually laugh. We have always liked women with more meat on there bones, it just wasn’t considered popular. Journalists and bloggers didn’t think that it was the cool thing to admit out in the open so it was only talked about behind closed doors.  Read more...

Today is one of those days that I am not sure what to write about. Usually when I get like this I have a lot on my mind and the only way to get back to regularly scheduled blogging I just have to type until my fingers stop.

I have already said that being involved in the Problogger Group Writing Project has been a very positive experience for me. My post 11 reasons why 2007 will be the year for plus size fashion has been well received by many people. When I was checking my links this morning to see who was linking to me I noticed Dave from Eclectic Gamer was talking about his experience in the project and listed a few of his favorite reads and he mentioned Full Figure Plus. If you are a fan of games then be sure to check Dave’s blog out. I know as a result of reading his blog I will be checking out the Transformers movie next summer.  Read more...

A few days ago I read on Big Fat Blog about the video and song Skinny by the group Low Rider and it brought up the question is the song making fun of fat women. In doing some looking around after reading the original post I came across a comment that said the ladies where on the “positive side of being fat”. Kind of like the video was a necessary evil. At least thats what I got from it. Considering that I see nothing but positive period when it comes to ladies and gentlemen that are fat I don’t fully understand the context in which the comment was made.  Read more...

Last week on Insider there was a segment featuring Mo’Nique and some plus size ladies dealing with issues ranging from bulimia to one lady that had gastric bypass surgery, two tummy tucks, and liposuction yet still felt she was overweight. The challenge that Mo’Nique put forth for the ladies had to do more than with losing weight, it dealt with mental, spritual as well as physical challenges. In other words worry more about your health than your size.
Plus size model Chenese Lewis was among the ladies taking the challenge and the only one that appeared to not have a problem with her size. She embraced her size while realizing that her health was very important. Health is something that is important no matter what a persons size is and for that I applaud the efforts of Mo’Nique and all the ladies that where involved in the challenge.  Read more...