10 Things Large Women Wish Clothes Designers Understood

1. Being large doesn’t mean we don’t have taste. PLEASE, no more garish fabrics with huge hibiscus flowers or other prints that should never have left the mumu factory! But that doesn’t mean we want to wear solid colors all our lives either.  Just use the same prints you use for all the other women.

2. We realize that leggings are cheap and easy to manufacture in a variety of sizes, but they do NOT flatter the legs of larger women. Displaying small ankles just highlights the size of our calves and thighs. Bootleg cut pants, in contrast, make legs look thinner by sandwiching them between wider lengths of fabric at the ankles and waist

3. So why do we buy leggings? Two words: thigh rub. It’s a major discomfort for large women, especially in shorts.  Please give us more bike-type shorts – snug without clinging but in slick fabrics that move freely as we walk rather than catching and rubbing. (And add some pockets while you’re at it – overweight women are tired of being cheated of pockets!)

4. Bathing suits. Large women don’t like them. Thigh rub is one reason. Having to wrestle our way out of wet one piece bathing suits just to go to the bathroom is another. The fact that many designs feature ruffles that stop right at the widest part of our booties is yet another.  We need two-piece bathing suits that come with shorts rather than panties, and longer tops that drape all the way over our booties.  Think old-fashioned wading dresses, but in cuter fabrics and more sexy designs

5. What’s the deal with sweaters? Why are you always trying to sell us long, baggy sweaters? Large women run hot – the last thing we want to be doing is wearing extra layers of wool. If you want to sell us extra layers, consider thinner fabrics

6. While I appreciate irony, there’s nothing more frustrating than shopping in the big/tall section only to discover that the shirts are shorter than those in every other department. While some women have shaped booties that deserve to be shown off, a lot of us don’t; we need shirts in a range of lengths, from short to extra long

7. And speaking of upsizing shirt lengths, please stop upsizing the length of the arms as well.  We’re ordering longer shirts not because we’re giantesses, but because we want some fabric concealing our tummies and booties. Our arms don't need to be flopping around in 6” of extra, unwanted sleeve.

8. Design isn’t everything – fabrics matter too.  Cute tunics in jersey fabrics are useless, because they catch on our pants and look terrible. Ditto wool and cheap cotton. A little spandex goes a long way towards helping our clothes hang in a flattering way.

9. Speaking of which, could we get some recognition that our booties are often wider than our shoulders? Stovepipe designs are made for people without curves.  Shirts that flair at the bottom give our booties room to move.

10. Large women deserve cute shoes that don’t collapse under our weight! When designing wider sizes, we need you to build in more structural supports – and make the toe openings wider on sandals, while you’re at it!