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?

Macy’s introduced larger sizes for women years ago even to the point that they reduced the amount of pettite floor space in their stores to accomodate the plus size fashions.  Top designers are including larger models to met the demand for clothes for larger sizes yet we still have stores that are testing the water to see if plus size clothing is a match for a company that sell clothes.

If companies like forever21.com would just read blogs like this one and others and see the amount of frustration that is a part of the daily shopping experience of larger men and women they would be running to try and get our shopping dollars.  I guess the success of companies like Rosaleewomensize Apparel, IGIGI, Monif C, and others is not big enough to show that there is a huge market available for plus sizes.  Forever21 there really is no need to test the waters when there are already plenty of boats in the water waiting for a port to welcome them ashore.

What do you think about stores that soft launch to plus sizes or sell plus sizes only in select markets?

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women

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.

Frequently, I come across a new search engine or resource for niche websites/blog and with nervous anticipation I input some variation of “plus size” into the search box.  In the nanoseconds it takes for the search to complete my blood pressure flares when I read yet again “No Results Found.” I sigh and wonder what is it going to take for blogs and websites for larger individuals to break out of the shadows to make prime time.

I realize that I shouldn’t care about what outsiders think, because making sure I take care of those that are important to me is my first priority, but wouldn’t you like to one day “Google” clothing withot using the qualifier plus size, full figure, extended size, etc?

I like you at time just want to give up, but I know that if I do that the progress that has been made over the past decade or so will be lost.  I am not sure if you or anyone else will get this letter but I can only hope that the powers that be take this letter as a clue that larger size individuals would like to be able to find clothing on the Internet in a more simpler method than just word of mouth among ourselves.

If you have any suggestions of how we can make our break into the limelight I would love to hear about it.  Maybe together we can solve this problem.

Sincerely,

FFP

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women

“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.

My preference for a plus size woman is not a fetish or sexual abomination. It is what it is an attraction based on size. I’m not saying that smaller women should be considered as trolls, because thats just not fair. The reality that there are men that love a woman with hips and curves and are not afraid to say it. If that makes me an odd man then I guess thats a label that I will have to deal with.

We men are pretty simple creatures when it comes to things that we like. There is no mystery that we have a built in radar that prefers things big. When getting a soda if given the choice between the 8 oz. and the two liter most will opt for the bigger bottle. I don’t know to many men that are drooling over a small truck or suv. So its not a stretch to see that men will have an in bred attraction for a larger woman.Don’t get me wrong there are a few fellas out there that are totally confused and think that the attraction to a plus size woman can only be sexual. To those men we lovers of big women want you to move on down the road and stop abusing the ladies that we adore.

Ladies know that there are men all over the world that love you just as you are. I realize that there will be days that you absolutely hate your body. That’s what we as the men in your life are there for. To make sure that when your feeling that the world is against you becuase of your size that we are there to let you know that it is because of your size that we are attracted to you and your award winning personality is why we stay.

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women

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.

As time passes and I start to read on other blogs about how they enjoy what I have blogged about I feel better about the decision that I made to start this blog and do what I do.

Switching gears back to plus size related stuff I was reading over at Deluxe Grrl her struggle with whether she should promote weight loss on her blog and if readers of a plus size fashion blog would care about it. I for one believe in promoting a healthy lifestyle and that is something that I will always promote in my writing.

I was in the same spot a few months ago when I was approached by eDiets to promote there program to my readers. My first thought was to say no because I don’t have a diet related blog and that my readers wouldn’t be interested. I later thought if I am promoting size acceptance then being healthy is a part of that and if I promote a program that educates the consumer about eating right and living a healthy lifestyle then I feel comfortable giving my opinion on it.

Though the foundation of Full Figure Plus is to provide shopping links for plus size men and women the advertising that is listed, which helps pay my hosting costs, are things that I think that should be relevant to my readers. I work hard to filter out things that are  not related to the content of this blog and will continue to do so in the future. I see myself as a service provider to my readers. With that in mind unless its just something that has to be said I won’t be blogging about home repair anytime soon.

I am still in search of a few blogging peers that I can bounce ideas off of.  Blogging full time can be lonely at times.  I have ideas I write about them and get a nice amount of comment feedback, but would love to have a group of people to talk to about the world of plus sizes and everything in it.  I would love to see a plus size version of the now famous blogging network b5 Media.  Bloogers that have different opinions of the same topic coming together for the better of everyone that reads the different blogs. If any of you know of other plus size bloggers that would like to link up in such a way feel free to contact me.

I guess I am done walking down the path of reflection. I feel a bit better about how I will approach the daily writing on my blog.  As always if you have any suggestion feel free to comment.

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women

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.

Did I see a lot of things in the video that are exploitative towards women? If I look at 98% of videos on television today I can find the same things. I think that its past time that people of size stop being sensitive about media portrayal that is not in a blatant manner exploiting people of size. Clearly there is nothing in this video that is exploiting fat people.
When I looked at the video response from the ladies involved in the project I saw a few things. Plus size models that where called in at the last minute to perform a job. For those that are in the modeling industry last minute know calls are a part of the industry. I also saw ladies speaking frankly about there size. I see nothing negative about either one of those things.

Considering the lack of plus size models in mainstream media today I have nothing but praise to heap on the ladies as well as the producers of the video. Now with that said I don’t particularly care for the song but I liked the video. There needs to be more plus size models being used across the board in all forms of media.
Skinny Video

Video Interview with Avalon (The lady that was ironing)

Vanessa – Response to critics Pt 1 (The lady on on the washing machine)

Pt 2

Don’t take my word for it check out the videos for yourself. A bit of a warning though. They are very long so make sure you have the time to devote to watching them. Once your done post your comments and thoughts on the video and the response that its got.

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women

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.

In another related story two weeks ago while Mo’Nique was the guest host on the nationally syndicated radio show The Micheal Basiden Show she made a unique request that plus size ladies call in an tell what types of exercise that they did to remain healthy. The calls ranged from walking to pole dancing from the callers which says to me that just because a man or woman is 260lbs or up doesn’t mean that they are not active or healthy.

What was once a subject that was talked about behind closed doors is now out in the open thanks to Monique. Even supermodel Tyra Banks is doing her thing to help plus sizes out. She has had a plus size lingerie as well as a Thick and Sexy Model competition on her daily talk show.

Hats off to all Mo’Nique and all the plus size ladies that are all about there health while still embracing the size that you are. If the weight loss comes thats great as well, but focusing more on being as healthy as possible is more important than anything.

Full Figure Plus - Plus Size Fashion For Today's Active Women