First of all, It’s hard to believe that in 2020, fashion designers still consider anything bigger than a size two to be “plus-sized” and unworthy of wearing an original designer outfit.
All body types should be accepted and celebrated. That’s the bottom line. Instead of asking women to change who they are, I think it would be a lot easier if designers just started making their clothes in more sizes.
RELATED STORIES
Bebe Rexha.
Bebe Rexha shaded designers for refusing to dress her for the 2019 Grammys. Luckily, designer Monsoori came to their senses and Bebe showed up to the Grammys looking fabulous in a red gown.
She vented her frustrations in an Instagram video.
“So I finally get nominated at the Grammys and it’s like the coolest thing ever,” she said. “And a lot of times artists will go and talk to designers and they’ll make them custom dresses to walk the red carpet, right?” Bebe explained.
“So I had my team hit out a lot of designers and a lot of them do not want to dress me because I’m too big.” she said.
“And if a size 6/8 is too big then I don’t what to tell you, then I don’t want to wear your [expletive] dresses.”
Bebe’s video resonated with actress Mayim Bialik and she commented to show her support.
She linked Bebe to a designer that would happily be willing to dress someone who’s a size 8.
Beyoncé.
Before Beyoncé became Beyoncé , designers weren’t keen on making outfits for her and the rest of the Destiny’s Child group.
During her acceptance speech at the Fashion Icon Awards, she admitted that her mom used to make their costumes by hand.
Because high-end designers “didn’t really want to dress four black, country, curvy girls.”
My guess is that designers would give anything to design Beyoncé a dress now.
Beyoncé ended up becoming one of the biggest superstars of our time, so the joke is on them!
Ashley Graham.
Ashley explained that most brands “flatly” refused to lend Ashley a dress because she wasn’t in the “sample range.”
But thankfully, Coach stepped up and delivered Ashley a stunning gown that fit her perfectly.
It seems absolutely absurd to me that a model has a hard time finding a designer to give her a dress when award season rolls around.
She is literally a model, and a well-known one at that.
This should not be a problem.
Hayden Panettiere.
Tom Ford only agreed to dress one person for the 2014 Golden Globes, and it wasn’t Hayden.
But she didn’t let that stop her. Instead, she went out and purchased her own Tom Ford dress.
Bryce Dallas Howard.
At the 2016 Golden Globes, when Bryce was asked by an interviewer what designer she was wearing, her response was priceless.
“I just picked it up at Neiman’s this week,” adding “I like having lots of options for a size 6, as opposed to maybe one option, so I always go to department stores.”
Melissa McCarthy.
Melissa has spoken out several times about how difficult it is to find fashion-forward outfits that actually fit her body-type.
She eventually became so fed up that she started up her own fashion line .
Leslie Jones.
Back in 2016, Leslie tweeted out about her struggles trying to find a dress for the premiere of her movie Ghostbusters .
“It’s so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for movie. Hmmm that will change and I remember everything” she said .
Danielle Brooks.
“It makes you feel like you’re ‘less than’ when you only have four options and three of them are in black or blue. It’s really not fun,” Brooks said . “I don’t see why I can’t get to wear Tom Ford or why I can’t wear Gucci or whatever those big name brands are. I don’t understand why I can’t be your ‘It’ girl.”
Gabourey Sidibe.
Gabourey has admitted in the past that finding clothing in her size has been difficult, she also sees the bright side of not wearing designer.
“I don’t really care because it gives me more freedom.” she told Haper’s Bazaar .
Jennifer Hudson.
After Jennifer’s impressive weight-loss transformation, she told The Daily Mail how much easier things have gotten for the songstress style-wise.
“So many more opportunities open up when you’re on the other side, as I am now,” she admitted.
“I’d no idea what I was missing out on. It’s like a whole other world. Suddenly every designer wants to dress you. It’s like, ‘You look amazing! Please, choose a dress. Have a bag. And what about shoes?’ I mean, wow!” she said.
Barbie Ferreira.
Plus-size model Barbie Ferreira, tweeted out her frustrations, saying: “Curvy women are not allowed to be edgy not allowed to be stylish or allowed to explore their looks like everyone else in this industry.”
“So don’t expect much from my designer Looks in the future until people wake tf up,” she continued.
“And hearing an actress in a huge film having similar struggles .. Girl I feel hopeless. Am I gonna have to wear Sears when I win my Oscar?”
Rachel Bloom.
This actress shared that she purchased her $3500 Gucci gown for the 2017 Emmy’s.
“It is hard to get places to lend to me because I am not a size zero, but also I can afford it, so it’s OK,” she said .
Love that she’s keeping things positive!
Amber Riley.
After Gabi Fresh tweeted a string of complaints about the lack of gown sizing for plus size women, Amber chimed in, agreeing, saying “we can’t win.”
Octavia Spencer.
Just before the 2012 Golden Globes, Octavia explained to reporters that she hadn’t yet found a dress.
“I’m just a short chubby girl,” she said , adding “It’s hard for me to find a dress to wear to something like this! It’s a lot of pressure, I’ll tell ya!”
“No designers are coming to me,” she continued.
“Maybe I should have sworn off peanut butter last year instead of this year. One of the best things about awards shows are you get to wear clothes you would never get to wear.”
Aidy Bryant.
After supposedly begging designers for years to make dresses that the plus-size women of television and film could wear, Aidy finally got through to Eloquii when they offered to make her dress for the 2016 Emmys.
What a win!
Christina Hendricks.
“It is difficult come awards season, and I need to find a gown to walk down the red carpet in, and there are only size zeros and size twos available. Then it becomes downright annoying because all these designers are saying, ‘We love ‘Mad Men,’ we love Christina, but we won’t make her a dress,” Christina told Glamour .
Dascha Polanco.
“I had a situation with a high-end brand the other day where I had personally invested so much money purchasing their items, and I love what they do, so I had my publicist reach out to their PR team. Their response was, ‘Oh, you’re not the sizes we have, not right now, maybe in the future,’” Dascha told Vogue .
Khloe Kardashian.
Khloe had a 40 pound weight-loss transformation over the last few years. But before that, Khloe struggled with her body image and it didn’t help that designers gave all their attention to her sisters and not her.
“There would always be this attention on Kourtney and Kim, but I was too much work for (stylists) or they had nothing in my size. I wasn’t even that crazy big!” Khloe said .
I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Khloe to watch her sisters be treated so well by designers, but completely exclude her.
For the love of God, she was a very average sized woman to begin with.
This shouldn’t have been a problem. She should have been treated equally to her sisters because she’s always been just as stunning.
Hopefully designers can get off their high horses and wake up from the dreamland they live in where all women need to be a size 0.
Excluding women who aren’t extremely thin is so 2002. Can we move on please?
