Nowhere is the ever changing face of fashion more apparent than in the realm of ladies clothing. Hemlines are forever on the move, necklines are constantly changing and finally, and thankfully those who design ladies clothing are finally realising that real women do not have a uniform body shape and one size will never fit all. The female population has more curves these days than many traditional ladies clothing designers allow for in their designs, and more and more women are finding that a standard off the peg size no longer fits them as it used to.
Perceptions are Changing
It used to be that some retail outlets would not entertain sizes of ladies clothing that they considered being ‘Plus Size’, in some stores this could be seen as anything over a size 14. These days more and more high street retailers are catering for the curvaceous woman. Although plus size ladies clothing is still regarded as anything over a size 16, the average size of a modern woman, things are gradually getting better. There is still the stigma attached to plus sized fashions though as the plus sized ladies clothing section is generally labelled differently and in a different section of the store to the main fashion lines. One would think that in this day and age any design could be made in a wider range of sizes rather than everything having to be kept separate.
Fashion for the Future
Designers need to realise that rather than the models that they use in their catwalk shows, real women have shapes and need ladies clothing that accommodates this shape. Busts, hips and bottoms are all curvaceous and set to stay that way. On the whole our population is becoming larger and heavier so why is it that the designers of ladies clothing are continuing to use size zero models to hang their clothes off. There are definitely some designers of ladies clothing out there that need a wakeup call before they are forced to step aside and let a new generation of ladies clothing designers, who design for today’s real woman take centre stage.
Ladies clothing is forever changing and no-one really knows what will be the next big thing. One thing that we do know however, is that the designer’s perceptions are beginning to change, and so the next few years could be quite exciting.
