nicola-eileen-blog

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Beautiful collection from Evans, proudly providing plus size clothing and lingerie... and with positive portrayals of plus size women too! 

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Being plus-size doesn’t mean you can’t look great in clothes, all you need to do is get to know your body type and what clothing works best for you. For us plus-size women, finding a pair of jeans that fit us comfortably can be a nightmare! This could be the end of all hope for some, however just a bit of exploration and time in the dressing room could be your solution. I found stretch high-waisted jeans to be best fitting for my pear body shape. The high waist on the jeans cinches the waist, covers the midriff and gives a better overall silhouette. The stretch fabric allows a comfortable fit and flexibility  for a wearable look that hugs all of your curves! The jeans I’m wearing in the second picture are from ‘Topshop.com’ and are the ‘Joni Jeans’ in a size sixteen.   Pairing two items of clothing together can often cause your body to get lost within the fabrics, using a waist belt to separate the two items can make your body appear longer and have more of a shape in order to separate your top half from your bottom. Cinching in your waist with the belt will highlight the waist of body types such as an apple shaped body when positioned underneath the bust for an hourglass silhouette and definition to your body. If you do not wish to have your stomach outlined, pairing a waist belt with a peplum top gives the same desired silhouette with flattering flared fabric covering the stomach and giving a pretty and elegant overall look to feel confident in a casual setting or even in the office.   Off-the-shoulder tops (bardot tops) can provide definition to your collar bone and neck area, showing skin without being too revealing while staying feminine, this style top is also an alternative for covering your arms whilst in warmer temperatures and feeling confident doing so.

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Addition Elle 🎀

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Due to the mainstream influence of hip-hop on today’s youth culture, being plus size is often spoken of in an admirable way such as within Drake’s verse within Nicki Minaj’s ‘Only’ in which he states that he loves his girls “BBW” – meaning ‘Big Beautiful Woman’. This is also within many of Nicki Minaj’s popular songs in which she proudly states, “I’ve got a big fat ass” empowering women to be confident regarding the extra junk in their trunk.

We must, however, question if this representation is healthy for the body positive movement, not regarding the message itself but who is conveying that representation. Nicki Minaj is well known for her rather large backside and it has become a big part of her identity as a singer and performer, often making it a common convention within her songs. However, it is also widely recognised  that Minaj has undergone surgeries in order to create her signature body type and by looking at older pictures of the star, it is clear that Nicki Minaj is not a ‘thick’ woman as self-proclaimed, but rather a thin woman who has undergone surgeries to achieve a fuller silhouette. This fuller silhouette is only in certain areas to achieve the new-age standard of the ‘perfect body type’ being only curvy within the chest, legs and buttocks area, therefore creating another unrealistic beauty standard of what it means to be plus size.

This is a reflected within the celebrities of the Kardashian family in which their fame revolves around their looks and, most importantly, their ‘thick’ bodies; this is then inspiring others to want their body shape by going to the gym to achieve the look they only achieved with the help of a surgeon, making an unhealthy obsession by our society by achieving bodies which aren’t often naturally achieved.  

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"You are the ugliest person in the world." I would often tell myself, standing naked in front of the mirror. I have always remembered doing this since I was very young, though when I said the words I wouldn't be upset and it wouldn't make a drastic change in my mood because I would always say it with a sigh and a shrug in acceptance that I was always going to be the ugliest person in the world.

I guess that was the only time I accepted myself at that time.

I was the ugliest person in the world because I was the only person in the world who looked like I did, there was nothing to tell me that the way my body looked was actually pretty normal and is beautiful to a lot of people. Instead, I was left staring at my TV watching portrayals of plus size women to be the unattractive comedian who was mocked about their weight and who mocked their own weight. Such comedians like Dawn French were constantly on the screen, who starred in 'The Vicar of Dibley', suggesting that the only way to be successful and admired as a bigger woman was to be laughed at.

These comical plus size characters are still very prominent within todays media with characters such as Rebel Wilson's 'Fat Amy' within the film 'Pitch Perfect' and male characters such as 'Homer Simpson' from 'The Simpsons' who is constantly made fun of or laughed at by the audience for being overweight. Considering the only thing overweight people have in common is being overweight and the struggles that come with that, the small and big screen is quick to confine the representation of those who are overweight into a small category of the same characters.

Although these representations from modern cinema and television convey negative stereotypes of those who are overweight, the fashion industry and the influence of social media is one of the few platforms rising to make a change to the representations, conveying plus size women as admirable and beautiful to the public. An example of this was when highly recognised magazine 'Sports Illustrated' hired plus size model Ashley Graham to model on the front page of the magazine, making her the first plus size model to do so. The magazine, which portrays beautiful women in revealing swimwear on the front cover, therefore broke boundaries within the fashion industry and is a step further to change the representation of plus size women both socially and culturally and influence a generation of a new definition of the word 'beautiful.'

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My whole life all I've known is being fat. I remember being in year four and being sat on the grass in my shorts, when a boy named Joshua commented "Your thighs are a lot bigger than mine." I then, for the first time of many, compared the size of my thighs to another person's. From that day onwards I didn't want to wear my PE shorts anymore; I had come face-to-face with being self-conscious at a very young age and little did I know it would come to effect me for the rest of my life.

I started wearing baggier clothes the older I became, my body shape would appear even bigger by the blankets of clothing draped over me in order to disguise what I was most ashamed of. I hated myself, and when I reached the UK clothing size 18 when I was only fourteen, it appeared that most of the world did too as I struggled to find clothes my size which were age appropriate for me.

I remember walking around clothing shops like New Look and being ashamed that I had to shop in the mature or plus size section, admiring the clothes I actually wanted to wear from a distance. In the young teenage years, we are very impressionable - so the media around me implying that the only way to be beautiful is to be skinny made me not only self-conscious but also made me lose a part of my identity. The confidence within myself had disappeared and was replaced by shyness and oversized hoodies.

I often wonder how my life would be different if I had someone of a fuller figure influencing me in a positive way to inform me that beauty comes in every clothing size. Instead I was only left to be influenced by the representation of plus size people within the media.