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How to get ahead of the curve this spring

January 30, 2012 13:12

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

3 min read

It was revealing that, in the course of researching this feature to determine which of the high street stores currently offer size 18 and over, the sizes most frequently sold out on the stores' websites - and we are talking brand new spring merchandise here - were the 18s, 20s and 22s.

Which demonstrates two things: one we already knew (though British retailers are in denial), that the average UK woman is not the borderline-anorexic size 6 seen in magazines and on the catwalks, but a somewhat curvier 18 or 20; and two: that curvier women are positively eager to splash their cash when they find gorgeous clothes that are made to fit them.

Actually, the earlier observation that "British retailers are in denial" is a tad unfair and no longer strictly accurate. The British high street has largely wised up to the fact that there is a whole demographic of curvy women who want clothes to fit them. It's just that, in general, while stores like Wallis, Dorothy Perkins, River Island, Next, New Look, M&S and Hobbs all offer sizes 18 in their mainstream collections - and some of them 20 and 22 - they do so with very little fanfare.

Whether this is for fear of putting themselves too squarely in the company of bigger girls, who, ludicrously, are still - despite the best efforts of gorgeous plus-size models like Crystal Renn and America's Next Top Model winner Whitney Thompson - not perceived as being as glamorous as the borderline anorexics, or whether these retailers are simply delinquent at marketing their more generous sizes, I really can't say.