Big Girl in a Skinny World
“Raven is an angsty big girl in a world of skinny people and goes on a major fashion tirade.”
I am ambivalent towards fashion. It is not for the lack of caring how I look like. I know clearly the specific look which I want to go for, which are menswear inspired, tomboy-esque styles. But in reality, shopping is a never-ending frustration for me and that in turn dampens my enthusiasm for styling up.
BIG GIRL WOES
I am a big girl, who wears anything between a US size 10-12, which makes me plus-sized by Asian standards. Every time I go shopping, I feel like Gulliver on the tiny island of Lilliput with its 6-inch tall citizens.
The default sizes here are small. With my broad shoulders, I can barely put my arm through teeny-weeny armholes, let alone try on most of the clothes available at local stores.
On the other extreme end of things, the plus-sized designs are all matronly and conservative. All this makes me feel like I am being punished for being ‘well-endowed’ and that I am forever doomed to wear only dowdy, uninspiring clothes that would age me by at least a decade.
Don’t even get me started on Asian designers who are only interested in designing clothes for tiny, skinny ice-cream stick models. Clothes that even babies can’t fit in.
And if that wasn’t enough, you have to endure walking into boutiques and stores fronted by snooty retail staff. Then, after looking around for what seems like years, you finally find something that you really like but as the goddesses deem it, tragically there is NEVER a size L on the rack.
So you decide to try your luck and ask if they stock bigger sizes and guess what? 90% of the time, the answer is a flat no. In the rare event they do stock a larger size, you realize their large sizes cater for a 14-year old teenager with no rack and hips. I normally like to support local creative industries but not when it comes to fashion. Until these designers wake up and realize that large women are into style as well with, literally, a potentially huge market out there, I am not wasting any more of my precious time with them.
Thank goodness for online retail stores like ASOS and Amazon which are my life saviors. Alternatively, I sometimes shop at USA and UK retail outlets like GAP and Topshop which annoyingly turn into premium, expensive brands when their branches are set up in Asia.
CURVES AND MENSWEAR — OXYMORON?
For someone who is into tomboy style, I have to confess that to the contrary, I do not shop at the menswear section at all unless I am hunting for accessories. The truth is my body type does not lend itself well to tomboy-type of styling.
I have seen so many cool photos of women wearing boys’ blazers, men’s shirts, retro suspenders or even crop their hair real short on Pinterest and Tumblr while wishing that I could pull off the same look. Usually when I see androgynous and masculine styles done successfully, they are often on women who are very tall, quite slim and have almost boyish bodies.
I, on the other hand, am 5’5″ and have a classic hourglass figure with the works — boobs, thighs, and a behind with ample real estate. 😛 To put it simply, I am all curves.
Real menswear does not fit me and adds 10 kilograms to my frame. On me, the masculine edge is lost. Instead of looking nonchalant and cool, I end up looking dull and sloppy with ill fitting and baggy clothes.
Yet womenswear fails to fit me either as mainstream fashion generally caters to skinny, boyish types. Women’s button downs are especially tricky. Even if I manage to find the right size, the overall fit is too boxy and unflattering. Or the shirt fits my form right but I cannot button it across my chest. Finding the right pants or jeans is also just too much of a herculean task . I either end up looking like Mr. Muffin on the top or bottoms that are bagging at my crotch.
LIFE IN THE TROPICS
There are only two seasons here in this part of the world — hot or hot and wet. Hence, clothing options are fairly limited. Most of time the last thing I want to do in the sweltering heat and humidity is indulge in layering. Sorry, not when I sweat every 2 minutes in the heat.
FAST FASHION
Fast fashion is a trend that I have a love-hate relationship with. On one hand, it allows me to buy clothes straight off the catwalk at a fraction of the cost, which includes the currently popular tomboy style, however, living in one of the most expensive cities in the world has forced me to be budget conscious.
There is a price to pay for disposable fashion. Clothes are now seen as cheap trash where quality is measured in how many washes it gets before it falls apart. These days, there is little reason to see clothing as something that should fit well or look particularly good.
Why get a $20 pair of pants hemmed properly or pay good money for a well-fitting quality wardrobe item when a cheaper one will do just fine? Why spend good money on a beautifully cut, fitted blazer when you can easily get five of them in different colours from a fast fashion store at the same price? Or a well made quality pair of brogues when you can buy ten identical pairs from Cotton On?
Even if you choose to pay for some level of quality, there is no guarantee your clothes will hold up. After a couple of washes, I have seen hemlines shrink, necklines widen, colours running and holes appearing in my garments.
Plus, there are not many affordable quality brands in the market, especially in my case, where I have to factor in exorbitant shipping costs just to import them over.
If I could, sometimes I would just pull a sack over my head and go out looking like that. Why is it so difficult to find affordable quality clothing that can fit me and not disintegrate after five washes?
Why does mainstream fashion think that women only exist in small sizes, possessing only one body type?
And how we can adapt freedom and form of menswear to our style?
Ideally I would like to care more about style but as it is, I already spend way too much time and energy on just dressing and making myself look fairly presentable to the world.
But for the sake of Tomboy Tarts, I would bravely venture on a mission to make tomboy style accessible to women with real bodies. Even our skinny 5’8” Sharon has problems finding clothes off the shelves with her height, with Persis also complaining about jeans that refuse to travel beyond her knees; a place she has now called ‘The Restricted Zone’.
With all these in mind, look out for our future tomboy fashion features where we interview designers and stylists to show you how you can adapt tomboy style for your body type. Hopefully!
Tell us your curvy girl struggles as a tomboy in a skinny world. We’d love to hear from you.
