Declare your Shapewear

I’ve mentioned in a few of my previous posts that my current size (about a size 18) is a relatively new thing. I have been big for a while, and have been gradually putting on weight, but its been the last year or so that I have truly started feeling plus size, and noticing my weight get in the way of what I’m wearing.

So I’m quite new and naïve. I’ve found myself really frustrated after buying clothes that look beautiful and flattering on websites but which end up looking lumpy, frumpy and generally horrendous on me. I started blaming myself for being not just plus sized, but a weird freakish, particularly ugly plus size. Buying a pretty dress should make me happy, but instead I have found myself feeling even worse on occasion.

Then I started looking behind the scenes a bit. I started reading a few plus size blogs, seeing how others do it. And what I found was a whole lot of shapewear. Now this isn’t something that I’ve ever really come across before, and it can be pretty confusing. There’s a lot of good reviews and explanations out there, and I’ve found them really helpful. I’ve picked up a few bits and pieces for reasonable prices at TK Maxx, and am in the process of learning how to wear them.

So it turns out it isn’t just me, and I don’t have a freakishly awful body- there’s just a lot of shapewear going on underneath those pretty dresses. Maybe many would say “Well that’s obvious!” but it certainly wasn’t obvious to me, and I wonder how many others have had the same problems, the same feelings of inadequacy because of it.

I have no problem with the shapewear itself, or models wearing it. But I feel uncomfortable about how many websites are using images with undeclared shapewear. My hypothesis is that it’s the plus size equivalent of airbrushing- it makes us believe that we are less worthy because our bodies can’t conform to the imagery we are presented with as natural. The plus size fashion world promotes itself as body positive, as all about accepting and loving your body, yet this sort of thing only serves to make some of us feel worse about our curves.

I’ll give you a specific example. I’m choosing this one just because I’ve come across it lately. Everyone is raving about the Lady Voluptuous range of dresses. I’ve blogged about my own Lyra dress, and I’m waiting for my Medusa to be delivered. I’m excited about this range of clothing, because their sizing tends to be brilliant and their clothes are great quality. In the pictures, Georginafrom Fuller Figure Fuller Bust looks really amazing, with a perfect hourglass figure. Just look at hertiny waist and smooth lines. The expectation is that I could chuck on one of those dresses and I should look just like that.

On her own blog, however, it is mentioned how she is corseted up for the photo shoot. To her credit, she does tend to be clear about what shapewear she is wearing on her blog, but that’s a good few clicks away from the page selling the dresses themselves, and probably wouldn’t be found by a casual buyer. In a follow up post about the Bellatrix dress, Georgina says:

“You don’t need to be ‘brave’ or ‘confident’ to put a beautiful dress on your body, you just need two things – the body, and the dress.”

But then in the very next line goes on to state that she’s wearing a £159.00 corset! So really, the implication is that we don’t just need two things- we need the body, the dress, and the uncomfortable, impractical, extremely expensive corsetry too. This isn’t a reflection on Georginaspecifically, or the dresses, which I do think are great- I just think it is indicative of a lot of the plus size fashion culture.

Perhaps I’m the only person bothered by this, but it feels like a real problem. Its one of the things that prompted me to write this blog in the first place. I think honesty is a much better option, so I shall always let you know what shapewear I’m wearing in my outfit posts.