Dear rude store associates,

Back in the early days of this blog there were stories all over the place about rude insensative sale associates at stores who made larger customers feel like complete heels when they are supposed to be serving the customer who is making a purchase that helps pay their salary.

After reading the article, “Rude sales staff have third of plus-size women walking out of shops” I have to say something normally reserved for others. Thank you rude, ignorant, insensitive sales associate in mainstream department stores.

If it wasn’t for your uncouth insensitive behavior plus size fashion would not be the successful niche it is today.  Without your draconian discrimination and your backwards thinking of a person based solely on their size designers, stores and magazines targeting plus size woman may not exist at least not in the way we see them today.

When I think about it without your insistence on openly discriminating against a chosen set of people something that should have went out with Jim Crow the environment would not have been created for the great minds to crate the stunning fashions we see today. In other words your poison was turned into something beautiful and fortunately for us you are not even aware of your contribution.

Without your help there would be no Mia Amber, we miss you, Ashley Graham, and Fluvia Lacerda.  Without your assistance there may not be a such thing as Anna Scholz, Hips & Curves, Kiyonna, Plus Model Magazine, or Full Figure Plus.  Events like Full Figured Fashion Week™ may not have been created.

We do not give you credit for the work involved to make each of the above named people, businesses, and events successful we simply thank you for showing us who the enemy is and who with the help of other community members can reveal your blatant negativity for what it is.  Actually we need your pre-reconstruction way of thinking to challenge us to new heights. so how could we be mad at a person who we should actually pity or give an invitation to the dance to teach you the error of your ways.

Other areas that flourished because of you:

1. Photography
2. Social Media
3. Health and Fitness
4. Beauty Products

Come to think of if the plus size fashion community could probably put you on the payroll considering how good of a job you have done at screwing things up for the community you support.  Instead of crushing our resolve you rude sales associates have given us the boost needed to move to the next level which takes us above and beyond your stifling inept comments, looks, and behind the times thinking.

Sincerely,

Glen L. Johnson, MBA
Plus Size Fashion Blogger and proud community member

P.S. Thanks to your negativity Pintrest has been a boon to plus size divas showing off their best in fashion. Keep up the good work.

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

Dear Mainstream Fashion,

As a long time blogger about plus size this and plus size that I have seen the plus size community grow despite your repeated efforts to stifle the growth through exclusion from stores, magazines, runways and even the Internet.  The height of the discrimination came about in 2009 with the cast of characters as long as a freight train stating that being obese or fat will be the death of us allowing your soldiers to rise to the top of the pile on the backs of people who simple looked to be healthy and wear some trendy clothes at the same time. Our success came despite your best efforts to destroy is and for that I want to thank you.

Thank goodness for the 20-30 plus size women who demanded trendy clothing and the over 40 plus size woman who demanded quality careerwear.  Without these niches there would be no stage for Full Figure Plus or the hundreds of plus size voices out there who speak much louder than your draconian ways and push emaciated abused teenage boy looking models out of the way to show beauty does not start and end with a size 0.

Without your help dozens of plus size designers would not exist.  Without your interference hundreds of plus friendly websites, modeling agencies, photographers could not exist.  Though I do not approve of your tactics thank goodness you are so good at being narrow minded that you missed the target when plus size fashion became a $120 billion dollar industry in 2012 (Predicted in 2009).  Thanks to your cheerleaders and poster children we were able to see those who were our supporters rise to unheard of heights and to cast those out who tried to cash in out fat only to bash it once they got their suitcase full of cash.

I do applaud your efforts to try and “support” the plus community with your “plus size sections” to your websites and magazines.  It shows your are not stupid just ignorant to the needs of a niche that for so many decades you have paid little attention to.  I pray that all you are is ignorant in which case you can learn from your evil ways.  If you are just plain stupid then I will wish you a good day and move on to more important endeavors.

Come to think of it without your repeated attempts to say obesity was next to HIV/AIDS in seriousness there would be no entrepreneurs and there would be no events popping up all over the world which not only focus on the fashion but talk about business, nutrition, health and fitness, and several other areas of interest.  Oh, and don’t think we have forgot the CDC numbers from a few years ago that stated being super skinny was worst for your health than being obese, by YOUR standards.  It seems odd that so much positive can come from your negative energy but I guess when you really think of it the plus size community is the epitome of “when your given lemons, make lemonade.”

There are so many people and businesses that I have met as a result of you I could designate an entire post just to naming them.  I want to thank all of you whether I know you personally or not because without you there would be no me.  I also include readers in that lot as well.  Without you the plus size reader there would be no need for a plus size fashion blog.

What has been created is a community full of plus size women and the men, like me, who support them that has grown from the ground up.  So much so that when you finally decide to pay attention to us you frequently miss the point and only focus on fat people who are wearing clothes because they are fat.  Thank you for missing the point because it gives us yet another platform to perform from and trust me we know what the community wants and needs because we are patrons of the community in which we serve.

Sincerely,

Glen L Johnson, MBA
Plus Size Blogger
Size Supporter

P.S. I am sure you will miss the point of this as well mainstream fashion. That’s fine we made it this far without you and will keep moving without you.

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

This is a guest post by Jodi Lawler from Cafe La Moda,

Blogs are our go-to for a big dosage of fash-spiration. Here’s our rundown some of the best plus-sized fashion blogs on the web that will have you feeling huge pangs of fashion lust. Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

Cupcakesclothes.com

We totally adore 21-year old Georgina’s personal style blog. It’s like a haven for our inner princess, with lots of dreamy photography and a big dose of girly, loveliness in the form of a moodboard of tulle skirts, prom dresses and the most jealousy-inducing accessories collection, ever! Her fashion is like a ray of sunshine – think Lolita meets kitsch meets candyfloss and you’ll get the picture of why we love to live vicariously through her wardrobe. Plus, this lady has the best hair in the bizz! And she ain’t just style without substance; Georgina is a talented artist to boot. We would tell you to log on simply for the drawings but we guarantee you will get distracted by the dresses…and the shoes, and the bags, and the jewelry, and the hair, and the….(you get the picture!)

Fattyunbound.blogspot.com

Oh, how we love Kirsty Lou’s thrifty fashion blog for “big bums and tums”. It features ‘what I wore today’ photos alongside tips and tutorials and a peppering of perspectives and histories. Her style is eclectic and we love her color combos and mash-up of print and layering. Her love of a Peter-pan collar is en par with ours and she’s so on-trend with her bargain buys it actually hurts! Her vintage and DIY references add major cool-and-edgy points to her look and she has a shoe collection Imelda Marcos would be jealous of. Warning: will induce major wardrobe envy.

Manfattan.com

We have Scott Schuman and the wonderful The Sartorialist to thank for our obsession with street style blogs. Our new number 1 street style haunt is the fabulous Manfattan Project, which celebrates the sartorially-savvy plus sized ladies and men of New York. Images capture different sizes, races and styles and is a celebration of the amazingly diverse fashions found on the streets of the fashion capital. Expect lots of color and a serious case of Iwanttogoshoppingrightnow-itus.

Plumpupthevolume.tumblr.com

What was originally started by 25-year old Jenn as a personal blog to track her weight loss and gain quickly became an inspirational space for her, and her followers, to celebrate happy, healthy ladies (and men!) who are comfortable in their own skin. A polar opposite of the ‘thinspiration’ trend, Plump up the Volume loves bodies of all shapes and sizes and is full to the brim of gorgeous images that will guarantee to leave you with a smile on your face – if rainbow cake came in blog form this is what it would look like! PUTV gets our award for the feel-good factor and we can guarantee you will log off with some major new girl crushes (and if anything is going to make you want to get a tattoo and dye your hair a cornucopia of colors then this is it!)

Guest Post contributed by Jodi Lawler from Cafe La Moda, the social space for beauty and fashion. Visit us for more inspirational ideas to leave you looking and feeling fabulous.

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

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