Woes Of A Plus Size Woman

I cannot emphasize enough on how badly we need plus size retail fashion here in Pakistan. If your comeback is, “..but they do keep XL sizes.” then please stop right there! I know there are stores which stock Large/XL sizes but they are quite limited. Some of my favorite retail stores for my casual fashion needs are Generation, Nishat, Sapphire & (sometimes) Alkaram. I say sometimes because they hardly keep loose fit. I love their tops because they are shorter and I don’t have “the-bum-problem” which I face otherwise. So the point is: the options are still very limited.

All the Fashion designers are also focused on either small or medium size as if the only women left in Pakistan are petite. Here I’d also like to blame our “Tailor Culture” as we have this alternate and a lot of women resort to getting their dresses customized/stitched from tailors hence there’s hardly a demand, when there’s no such demand, there won’t be a supply either. Basic economic rule playing with my life since ages uh!

Things that I cannot buy ’cause measurements uh!

Trends are changing though. A lot of women go crazy for Agha Noor (believe me I haven’t yet entered the store, forget buying a dress) as I have heard they stock plus sizes but then again plus sizes are almost always sold out soon (as I have observed from a few women/shopping groups). Don’t even ask me their status during sales. It’s like everyone is going bonkers but the sad part is that there are a few ladies who buy a lot of stuff and sell it later with a profit on these online forums/Facebook pages. That is seriously very unfair but as long as the brands are earning, I doubt they would do anything about it.

Anyway, my cries for a proper dedicated plus size retail fashion outlet would definitely go unheard (for now). The same is quite applicable whenever I want to shop for inner wear. Believe it or not, I have seen a lot of women ordering their lingerie/inner wear needs from these forums where people take international orders. Primark and Marks & Spencer are the two most sought after companies. Now can you imagine giving such a huge chunk of business to these international outlets through a scale which doesn’t even benefit your economy? Apart from my biology, was this economics convincing enough to have more local options for my poor soul? 😀

In all honesty, I did try buying bras once from a local store. I wouldn’t name it but as soon as I started to go through the fancy aisle, questions were raised about my marital status. WELL HELLO? I HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE MYSELF THE WAY I WANT. And whatever happened to feeling good about yourself? Why does dressing up have to be for anyone else? There are days when I really like to dress up and feel good about it. The same applies for inner wear. Wearing a lacy lingerie or a bright flowery pattern boosts my mood and makes me feel happy. Ever since my mom stopped buying my bras (uh I know), I have chosen the option to buy all the fun looking stuff because I CAN! ❤

All this talk reminds me to share how I went to this lingerie store opening last week. It goes by the name of British Lingerie Studio or BLS. They recently opened up a store at LuckyOne Mall. It was my first time visiting both; the mall and the store. I was more excited about the store than the mall because I am not too fond of crowded places as such. Another reason of my excitement was a chance to get my hands on my size of lingerie so that I don’t have to request the ladies online to get me lingerie from Dubai/US/UK and wait for ages for the order to arrive.

Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed. I shared my views with the Brand Manager Mariya and surprisingly she was of the same opinion that we should have such options locally available. Then she gave us a tour of the store and I got to know that they are keeping plus sizes in basic fashion as the store recently opened up. I was also told that they plan to stock some fancy inner wear as well in future. So I am keeping my fingers crossed. I am planning to visit soon to check out the variety properly. To give you the feel of the store, here are some pictures from their LuckyOne outlet:

Even though they claimed to keep plus sizes, I was a little disappointed seeing no XL size in these cute jammies!

Anyway, I am glad there is someone thinking about us even though we have a long way to go before we can shop directly off the rack (in Pakistan). I remember how Muslim Fashion became a thing in no time, so I am not losing hope at all. We have already got Splash here in Pakistan so I am hoping more brands either enter the market or the current ones realize our needs to get our hands on plus size outer wear as well as inner wear! 🙂

Oh yes! ❤

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