I recently went to the store of a well-known sportswear
brand
.
There were two shop assistants who took a while to serve me even though there was no one there.
After looking for a while and choosing the dress that would have suited me, I approached one of them (the youngest).
With a condescending half smile she told me: “We don't have sizes that big.”
In most stores I have a size 40, or an L. I left there with my
leggings,
my old coat, and my knit sweater: “I'll look on the website, I know they have my size.”
Another half smile, half turn, and the girl returned with her companion to do nothing.
Why did they treat me like this?
It's easy: there is nothing that creates more desire than exclusion.
This is not a traumatic experience, nor even a form of crying.
If I put it in writing it is because it shows how a part of the world works.
Specifically, fashion.
I wish I had had an adolescence in which my body (quite thin at the time, but curvy) was not a reason for ridicule or shame.
I wish I had an environment where having hips wasn't something to be laughed at.
And above all, I would like to recover that time to live it without complexes or crying for not fitting into the clothes of those brands that, at that time, only designed pencil skirts.
Many years ago, when I was between 36 and 38, I went to the store of a designer who now dedicates herself to other things and asked to try on a dress.
The shop assistant (also young, but older than me at the time) told me that it was better that she didn't do it, because she was going to break it.
Rudeness of that level is only uttered to a twenty-year-old.
I insisted and tried on the dress.
Of course I didn't break it.
But, as a costume designer I know says, “your size is one thing, and the size that fits you is another.”
And I would never have bought something from a store where they try to make you feel bad for having a size larger than 36. Is it any wonder that this brand went bankrupt?
Not me.
At that same time, a classmate lost weight with great effort to fit into a dress (who hasn't done this stupid thing at some point?).
The girl had and has a round face, so no matter how much weight she loses, she will always look like she weighs more than she does.
He went to the store of one of those brands where the designer puts out the same collection year after year.
She fit into her desired dress, to the chagrin of the two shopkeepers, who looked at her like she would discover the disfigured face of
The Phantom of the Opera.
“How upset the boss is going to be when he finds out.”
I say “the boss” not to mention the name of the designer in question, a guy committed, I suppose, to the annihilation of overweight people.
The girl took the dress (I don't understand why) and cried bitterly about the mistreatment that the employees of her admired designer subjected her to.
Shortly after, Karl Lagerfeld signed with H&M to release a collection with them.
Premium
for H&M and cheap for Lagerfeld.
The late Kaiser's anger was unleashed when he saw that they had made sizes for people of mammoth proportions capable of wearing up to a 44. In his own words, his clothes were designed “for slender people.”
And, while it is true that each one (and each one) has a silhouette that favors more or less a type of garment, it is no less true that the person who first has to feel good with a garment is its wearer.
My classmate purchased a dress from that collection in the largest size available, striking the honor of the late genius.
I would like to recover that time to live it without complexes or crying for not fitting into the clothes of those brands that, at that time, only designed pencil skirts.
Fatphobia within fashion is such that some brands separate the plus size collection from the normal one, to keep those non-aspirational bodies away from their aisles.
Most brands do not design above certain measurements.
Above are other patterns.
If you are fat you are forced to hide.
Designers will consider that you can only dress like your elderly mother.
Thanks to this prejudice Shein has reached so many closets.
Big women, before Shein, were not allowed to look or appear attractive.
It is a topic worthy of essay: the elitism of the textile industry generates a wave of pollution through low-quality and large-size garments.
Quite a few alternative clothing brands offer plus sizes in their catalogues, but not all plus size women want to dress in alternative fashion.
A designer, or a brand, should not care in principle who wears their creations.
But they care because their clients are the ones who make the brand image.
In the case of luxury brands the cut is clear.
As much as I want to buy something from Dolce & Gabbana's Sicilian Carreto collection, I can't.
I cannot, it is not good for me, to save several thousand euros to buy a garment.
The cheapest is over 300 euros.
I am automatically excluded.
If I could buy a
top
from that collection for, say, 30 euros, it would lie in a pile of difficult-to-match garments.
I would wear it more or less, but it would be another garment, not the garment reserved for the best occasions.
He would end up going down with me to the beach, the fruit shop or the gym.
It would be an everyday garment.
And luxury, if it is not something, is everyday.
Luxury is rare, inaccessible, distant.
The luxury is getting older and not gaining weight.
Lose weight at Buchinger.
Drink an antioxidant tea on dishes purchased from Cristina Oria.
Luxury is what we don't have.
During the preparation of this article I went through several
escort pages.
The word
escort
is already above the word prostitute.
In those catalogs of exuberant but ordinary women there was a diversity of sizes and bodies.
However, they all said they weighed no more than 56 kilos.
The fattest one I found weighed exactly 56 kilos and was 1.60 meters tall.
I assure you that that woman did not even weigh 56 kilos.
For a man who rents a body, a woman cannot weigh more than 56 kilos.
Men who rent bodies want to sleep with an Irina Shayk.
How does a size become a luxury?
If the majority of women have a size 40-42, a minority of adults have sizes between 34 and 38. Except for those who remain in that size due to their constitution, the rest gain weight due to factors such as age, genetics, and the modern lifestyle that consists of running from one place to another and consuming ultra-processed products where 40% of the composition is a mixture of flour, animal fat and oil.
This percentage can increase up to 60% in
snacks
and sweets.
However, most mid/high-end brands do not suit the majority of the female population.
These brands will live mainly on perfumes and accessories.
Their designers often look down on women who are not thin.
They do not aspire to have a great fortune like Chris Xu (Shein), Amancio Ortega (Inditex), or Arthur Ryan (Primark).
They aspire to be the designers that Xu, Ortega or Ryan's daughters buy from.
Clothes are meant to be worn, protected from inclement weather and adapted to the different social situations we live in.
Fashion is something else.
Fashion is a dream in which you either fit in or you don't fit.
It is your decision to take it as a reality or be aware that it is just a dream.
As a designer consulted for this article says, “the dress has to adapt to you, not you to the dress.
The only thing left was for you to be traumatized by a rag.”