Man, I really hope NAAFA is all over this.

A, I’m supersize, which means NOTHING in Target, Sears, or JC Penney’s fits me, and I’ve never seen any indication that Wal-Mart is any different.
B, I’ve got Catherine’s and Casual Male (yes, men’s store, but some of the stuff fits) within a few miles of my house.
C, The nearest Wal-Mart is 20 miles away.

I am tempted to go the route of Noel Figart and take up sewing, but as she notes, it takes a LOT of practice to be able to adapt patterns to one’s body well. (She did a SWAP, or Sewing With A Plan, to create a basic professional wardrobe for a few hundred dollars – http://noelfigart.com/blog/2008/07/10/wardrobe-combinations/ )

OTOH, I do have enough money to buy Making It Big’s made legal American workers pants, so I should stop griping.

If it makes you feel any better, James died in absolute and abysmal poverty. And yes, he was a genius. Genius has nothing to do with “good person;” Picasso was known to extinguish cigarettes on the person of the woman keeping him company at the time. Charles Worth, the father of modern couture, demanded an introduction, and he decided if the woman would be a customer – not the hopeful customer. James was known for taking finished garments away from their owners, and doing additional work on them, if they didn’t meet his specifications. Would I want him as a friend? No. Study under him? You bet.

@Kate, I didn’t actually see Tadashi Shoji stating that he “knows he has us over a barrel;” saying “”It’s money dangling in front of your eyes,” is exactly what the rest of us have been saying for years. If Shoji is charging 10-15% more than smaller sizes – I don’t think that’s fiscally irresponsible, really. It takes pattern makers who can draft for those sizes (not as easy to find as you might think); layouts on fabric aren’t as cost effective, and the costs for fabric are increased – it’s not exactly the same as saying, it’s only another yard of fabric, why isn’t the cost just another X dollars for that yard? The layout for that pattern may nip into another three yards. And his cutting is phenomenal!! – and I don’t say that often. His costs are well within reasonable prices for designer clothes. No, they aren’t Target, or Wal-Mart prices – but I’ve seen those prices at Lord & Taylor’s and other department stores for comparable clothing. I don’t think that he’s an abusive merchant – I think he’s recognized there’s a market, and he’s addressing the needs of that market. I didn’t see anything that he personally said that was either greedy, or disrespectful to large women.

@Tari: it appears to me as if a range of styles are being offered. That fabulous dress Kate linked certainly has bare arms. Some women like to cover their arms, some don’t.

I actually enjoyed the shock of the writer on finding out that her size-8 slacks make her a “plus size” in the deranged eyes of the Fashion World. The smaller the sizes that are “plus,” the more people They can sweep into the Diet Net – because, horrors, who wants to be plus? The writer’s thighs weren’t a millimeter bigger than before she found out, but you know that increased her anxiety level.

@Emmy, there are videos and how-tos on the net about making duct-tape dummies. Remember not to pull the tape too tight, or it’ll distort the shapes you’re copying! Make sure the T-shirt is pretty long, as it gets hiked up in the taping. Good luck! (Shoulder pads aren’t really the villains they sometimes seem; the right shoulder pads shouldn’t even be visible. But you can certainly manage without them.)

@Bon, if she uses Rigid Wrap, she has to then use a pourable foam to create a dummy that can have pins stuck in it. Some folks make the Duct Tape Dummies and stuff them as is; some make patterns from the Duct Tape Dummy pieces, and make them up in canvas and stuff them so that they can have pinable dummies. It makes a tremendous difference in dressmaking to be able to pin into the dummy.

@AR, you are right. At $4400 per year (student, I’m guessing, what with textbooks), you are not currently anyone’s target market, regardless of your size. Your discriminatory income, currently, is negligible/nonexistent. I spent a whole lot of years being that poor. The fact that I think Tadashi Shoji’s prices are reasonable for designer clothing, and that Jane Bonbon’s dresses are reasonably priced for a broader market, doesn’t mean that I, personally, have anything like that kind money to spend. At this point in my life, I can pretty much guarantee I never will, either. The reasonable solution for you, and for The Bald Soprano, is the same as it was for me: learning to sew. Not because it’s a creative outlet, not because we’re artistic, but for the same reason the poor have always sewn: to cover their backs. It is the best solution that I can recommend for the poor. If you have access to libraries, there are a lot of books that will tell you what goes into making clothes; there’s tons of information on the Internet, and all sorts of knowledgeable folks willing to offer advice. If you can’t afford patterns (which often go on sale $.99-$1.99, much better than the original $15-$25), you can tape newspapers together for the pattern pieces, and copy the shapes of the pieces from the clothes you currently own. You don’t need a machine to start, either; it can be done by hand, especially in all the places where you have to wait for someone else – bus, doctor’s office, etc. If you want a machine, you can often find one for free on craigslist or freecycle. Fabric can be found in terms of sheets, curtains, etc., often at thrift stores, or offered free via freecycle; I’ve made robes from bedsheets and coats from bedspreads. Existing garments (from thrift stores, donations from friends, etc.) can be scavenged for their fabric and findings (zippers, buttons, snaps, etc.), if they’re too small. *You can skimp in a lot of places; always buy good thread. If they’re not too small, but don’t fit right, you can alter them Clothes that fit but are worn past mending become pattern pieces. The simplest garments are often the most becoming: a half-circle skirt, which is the most flattering skirt shape, doesn’t need a pattern, just a pencil and a string, if you haven’t a measuring tape; a plain gathered skirt with a waistband is a rectangle for the skirt, and another rectangle for the waistband. As far as cold hard cash goes, buy at least two good bras a year and alternate them so they don’t wear out as quickly; don’t be afraid to mend them, either. If you don’t have a favorite bra shop, Lane Bryant has some decent bras; so does Frederick’s of Hollywood. (The best bras for support, unfortunately, are the ones that have a horizontal seam across the cup, and a vertical seam below that.) You can make your own bras, but you’ll want to have some sewing practice under your belt first. (You may also never want to make your own bras.) For people like us, with little or no money to spend, the upper end of clothing manufacture exists primarily as handbook to what’s current.

And you know what? Sewing isn’t giving up, either. Sewing is about total control – even if you are poor. And I like that a lot.

So i am wondering how you show progress, and what happens after a persons weight hits that point where it doesn’t want to go any lower. That makes the only method for them to avoid the fees completely subjective. And their workers union is not doing anything about it.

I’m very much aware that, while I feel alone at those times, I’m not — it’s just that I have nowhere to go and ‘discharge’ the feelings. I can talk to my spouse about them, but he’s an average-sized guy who’s never been through it. I have two close friends who are of size, both of whom are hostages of the dieting culture and can only offer sympathy and the latest ‘lifestyle change.’ The knowledge that my feelings are so common, yet so misunderstood by those closest to me, is pretty heart-rending.

I have frequently considered starting a forum for people of size, a safe place to talk about those awful feelings without fear of being doubly injured by hatred in the guise of ’support’ (you know, ‘if you feel THIS badly about it, maybe you SHOULD consider losing some weight,’ etc.). Just out of curiosity, would any of you guys (sic) be interested in something like that?

It’s called the Pyramid Collection. I don’t particularly like this term for the style, but I haven’t a better one, so we’ll say it’s a very “new-age” style of clothing, jewelry, and home decor/ gifts sort of products. But I’m a bit “new age,” myself… gosh I wish there was a better term.

Anyhow, the catalog. They have gothic style, ren faire style, steampunk style… and also just a whole lot of pretty dresses, shirts, and skirts that I would absolutely LOVE to just rock the heck out of all over the place if I had the guts to dress in a style my family would probably give me grief over.

From an FA point of view the catalog is mildly problematic really, the cover says, “we offer goddess sizing at no extra charge!” which is one of those iffy, gray areas where you can’t decide if it does more harm than good, though they probably mean well (I hope, but who knows?). And the sizes don’t go up very high I don’t think, like 24 or something. I’m lucky enough (from a rampant hatred standpoint and also a search- for- plus-sizes standpoint) to be on the smaller end of plus, so I could still shop there if only I had the money (there are certain items of clothing there that I would own in a heartbeat if I could afford them and my family be darned) but thanks to you all I notice this stuff more now.

There are two simple yet impossibly beautiful dresses that I would not wait to have an occasion for. I’d just up and wear them. Hell, I’d wear them to hang around the house. They’re just very very me, in a way that the majority of my wardrobe is just painfully NOT.

Mmm. I wish I lived in an area where nobody batted an eye at that kind of clothing. Not to mention wishing I worked at a job that allowed for some individual expression in the dress code. I’m a lot more comfortable in my own skin now, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable in my clothes.

I mean, I sort of damn well should’ve been blown away, because it is, yes, a Very Expensive Shop. I should have expected it since it was mentioned in connection with the Tadashi label. Ooops. (I did score two outstanding 3/4 sleeve tee shirts at $60 each. I’m busty and hippy and finding non-boxy tees that fit well is a nightmare, and I’m corporate, so that’s a suckable-uppable price point for me. I’ll still be lucky to order one real investment piece from OKW, maybe, if I think it through carefully enough.) Still, if anyone in or with access to Boston does have some money to spend and is looking for an occasion-of-a-lifetime dress, or for the kind of jacket or skirt that will score you a huge new job or client and then become a knock-the-room-dead wardrobe staple for the next decade, then totally check her out.

And so much for the stereotype “all fat people are piss-poor and can’t afford to pay for designer clothing.” FALSE. I am absolutely not trying to knock people who do find themselves simultaneously fat and poor, I’m just saying, like with any other physical demographic, there’s a full spectrum out there and it really belies the classist inflection of the obesity-epidemic myth.