“Horizontal stripes? Really? Do you think they work with your… umm… curves?
Maybe you should wear a longer skirt.
Don’t you think a loose shirt will look better?”
Well-meaning bits of sartorial advice all, but also extremely aggravating. I’m not plus-size but I’ve never been a sample size either. Thinly-veiled comments like, “Oh, you are just healthy,” or “It’s baby fat that never went away,” have instilled I-am-fat phobia in me, along with crushing self-doubt. The low point came a few years ago after being turned away by a store which didn’t stock clothes in my size. Shock gave way to embarrassment to anger to self-pity and despair. I remember thinking that as an average-sized woman if I was considered big, what did fashion do to women who were not their vision of normal? So today when I hear conversations about body positivity and see campaigns featuring plus-size women, it comes as a breath of fresh air.
Internationally, the talk of an integrated fashion industry started a while ago. In India, photo spreads featuring plus-size fashionistas in magazines like Elle and Cosmopolitan have been all over social media. Lakme Fashion Week, this year, featured a plus-size fashion show. It’s a new era. Society’s perception of beauty and style is evolving and Pune as a city knows the times, they are a-changin’.
Unapologetically confident about her style and her size, Meenu Goel is a trailblazer on the Pune blogging scene. Meenu started her blog, She’s a Sixteen, last year, after a life-long affair with all things fashion. And she embraces the term plus-size. She says matter-of-factly, “I use plus-size to avoid any confusion. I am not merely curvy. I wear a size 16 which is well ensconced in the plus-size range.” Her blog which is popular with curvy and thin women, alike, is proof that she’s slaying it one outfit at a time, detractors be damned.
Prod her about trolling and she says she’s been lucky with the feedback, flooded with only praise and encouragement. And that’s a positive sign because it’s time for the formulaic depiction of the fat, funny but definitely not stylish best friend to change. Nikita Malhotra, entrepreneur and fashion aficionado, has noticed a slight shift in the eons-old stereotype but she says there is a long way to go. “It’s not unhealthy to have a big body. That perception needs to change. I am, as my friend put it, voluptuously beautiful.”
Nikita adds, “Earlier, shopping in Pune for my size was not just difficult, it was disheartening. I would want to splurge but where? Today, the most popular trends like anti-fit and Indo-western bohemian are size neutral.” Designers and high-street brands now recognize the need for democratic fashion. Pune-based designer Purva Pardeshi encourages plus-size, curvy women to look beyond loose, unflattering clothing, “I feel that the more you cover up, the more voluminous you look. Instead of trying to cover up I feel one should highlight their best features.”
Both Nikita and Meenu talk about Pune-based stores like Cupid and Fling, and bigger brands like Westside and Pantaloons, which cater to plus-size women, too. But there’s more work to be done says Purva, “Even though there is customisation available amongst local brands, I strongly feel mass-market brands should increase the range of sizes in their stores.”
Fashion, with all the brickbats thrown its way, has now finally woken up to a more diverse world. We can always hope to go back to a time when the curvy Hema Malini was the nation’s dream girl. Like Nikita puts it, plus is after all a sign of positivity.
- Shirt Skirt Dress - September 1, 2017
- Dangling Dungarees - August 31, 2017
- Suited Pastel-y - August 30, 2017
