Plus Size Fashion Tips: How to Dress with Confidence and Style

Are you one of the many women who’ve walked into a store, picked a beautiful garment off the rack only to be told that it doesn’t come in plus size or horror of horrors, that “we keep our plus sizes out the back, I’ll go and check for you?” But with the average 35-44 year old Australian woman measuring a size 14-16, and the typical plus size range starting at just the next size up, from size 18, why is the clothing industry continuing to minoritise the majority?

Why Is Plus Size Clothing Even A Thing? 

Roughly half the population is women, all of whom wear clothes, and with the average woman’s dress size sitting more or less in the middle of the size chart, why are the sizes at the upper end of the scale set apart as ‘plus size’?

Well, it's got a lot to do with the now out-of-date sizing conventions still being used today from generations past. But more interestingly, is that women's clothing from a size 18 up requires more focused fitting techniques to look and feel good on the body. That’s not to say they just require more fabric. There are aspects of a garment’s design that require greater adaptation to allow for the curve of fuller figure bodies.

The Specialist Skills For Plus Size Clothing

When creating a garment, the style is first planned out in a single sample size, as flat pieces on paper, known as a pattern. Other sizes are then created by moving up or down the size scale based on specific measurements. This is called pattern grading. And up to a certain point, this works. But as a woman’s curves grow fuller, so body proportion and shapes change which traditional grading is too ‘straight’ to allow for. 

A Plus For Testing On Curvy Women

The next step is the fit test. Now what would be the point of grading for fuller figures and then not trying them on a curvy woman? At L+F we wear test our garments on sizes 12, 18 and 22 women to ensure they all fit well and look good across the size spectrum.

As well as being fitted in the design studio, our garments are thoroughly wear-tested too. "Wear-testing is where I wear the garment at work for the day, see how it moves and feels in an office environment and often I will wear-test on the weekends – going to kids sports, family events, grocery shopping etc. Then I give feedback on what I love about the style and any problems I may come across. I also give feedback on how the garment washes," explains L+F Marketing Manager, Hayley who, measuring a size 18, is one of our plus size 'fit and wear' models.

Full-Picture Not Just Fuller-Figure

About more than just fuller figure clothing, L+F deliver full picture clothing. Age, stage and size inclusive, our clothes are designed to give all women confidence that fits. L+F clothing looks fabulous on all shapes and sizes, heights and ages of women and that's why we aim for model diversity across our website and social media platforms.

The Quiet Plus in L&F's Curve Clothing

For us at L+F, crafting well-fitting garments is our passion and our area of expertise. For that reason we don’t distinguish plus sizes from the rest of our clothing. If we’re doing our job properly, we should be able to deliver clothing styles that fit every curve and every woman in our size range, regardless of the number.

All of our styles from our wrap dresses and pull-on soft jersey pants to our tailored trousers and jackets come in an inclusive 8 to 24 size range. We have a bespoke approach to the fit outcomes we desire for all the sizes we make, so why should we pigeonhole our expertise by labelling a size range within our size range? We shouldn’t. Although perhaps more women searching for ‘plus size clothing’ would find us if we did.

Plus Size Occasionwear & Cocktail Dresses

L+F's new range of evening and cocktail wear increases the options for fuller figure women. Specially graded beyond a size 18, these well-fitting event styles deliver confidence as well as glamour.

Step out in curve cocktail dresses, shimmering evening separates and cocktail pant suits in luxe velveteen - in sizes 8 to 24 there's no reason not to!