Size Matters

Shopping for clothes can be frustrating at the best of times - you find that you fit into a different size in every different shop, therefore meaning that you waltz into the changing rooms with at least two of every item. But to be honest, I think that's one of the lesser problems that comes with high street shopping.

On a recent trip into Leeds city centre, I was rather disappointed to find such a limited range of sizes out in the shops I was looking in. Being only five feet tall myself, I usually choose to browse the petite section, providing that there is one, because most clothes are more in proportion to my frame. Fitting in between sizes 10 and 12 (UK sizes), I was shocked to find it difficult to locate any of the garments on display actually in either of my sizes, and considering that the average dress size for a woman in the UK is a 16, I think it's acceptable to say that I was pretty disgusted. I was surrounded by sizes 2 to 6, with the odd size 8 floating around here and there, and at the moment it really hit me just how damaging this can be to the way a person feels about them self.

It was a considerable blow to my confidence to discover that a high end fashion store like this doesn't stock many items in my size or larger, and I have since discovered that the shop in question only stocks clothing up to a size 14 in its petite section. 

Pairing this with the media's, often damaging, portrayal of the female body image, and how a woman "should" look, it comes as no surprise that so many women feel the need to shed as much weight as they can to fit into fashionable clothing. Personally, I won't be making the decision to lose any weight in order to fit the image that many fashion retailers portray. 

I am all for bodies that come in all shapes and sizes, and weights and heights - because we're all different, and we should all be praised for looking the way we do instead of feeling like we have to fit a specific mould. Retailers should bear this in mind when marketing their stores, and think about what people really want to encounter when they're out shopping. I would much rather see an advert or billboard with a range of models who represent as many different body types as possible, showing consumers that, no, they don't have to look a certain way to dress fashionably.

It is encouraging to see some high street stores embracing the changing shapes of women in the UK. Debenhams unveiled their very own size 16 mannequins towards the end of last year to help female shoppers feel much more comfortable when browsing their store for clothes. I think it's high time that all stores across the UK adopted the same attitudes to body image, and create a positive environment for all shoppers across the country.

~ C xxx