An Open Letter To The High Street Fashion Industry

(Image taken from Google)

I hate shopping for one reason, and one reason only...

NOTHING. F***ING. FITS.

I see rows and rows of gorgeous spring dresses and cropped knits and cute jeans, and after trying on 12 different items in the dressing room, I'll leave with nothing but shame for the way my body looks. I'm not exactly plus-size, but I'm not really a "standard" size either. More of a weird inbetweeny stage where plus-size fashion makes me look and feel a lot bigger than I am, and mainstream high street fashion also makes me look and feel a lot bigger than I am... you see my problem here?

In my personal opinion, clothes are designed with only one body shape in mind, a body shape that I do not remotely resemble, a body shape that most women do not remotely resemble. It always comes back to that ideal society we've been conditioned to want to achieve, but do you know what? I don't like feeling resentment towards my body because of multicoloured, over-priced thread. 

It's all very well having the same clothes for sizes 4-18, but am I really going to feel comfortable in that skin tight party dress that the size 6 mannequin is absolutely rockin'? Am I ever going to go outside in that cute pastel cropped jumper? No. I have been conditioned from a young age to believe that you have to have a certain body type to be accepted wearing these sorts of clothes, and yet fashion for petite women, tall women, and plus-size women is becoming increasingly harder to find. 

Primark is the only high-street shop that stocks my size in footwear, and even then, it's an incredibly limited selection. 

I can't buy bras in New Look because they're all too small, and I HAVE AVERAGE SIZED TITS.

I can't shop in Topshop full stop.

Plus size clothing is covered in frills and flowers, and most of the time, looks like something your 50 year old Aunt would wear... or maternity clothes. Half the time its modelled by a size 16 woman with a flat stomach! Of course, I'm not saying this for all plus-size fashion, just quite a lot of the stuff that I personally have come across.

You might be saying, 'but ASOS and Boohoo have plus-size fashion, and New Look have a plus sized section on their website,' but why aren't these things readily available on the high street? Why do I have to wait a week for a jumper to arrive just to discover it doesn't fit, or looks weird? 

If I want a nice pair of shoes, I have to order them from JustFab, which is a great site, but doesn't exactly help when I want to try them on before I buy them, or need them for a last minute event.

I wish I could enjoy shopping as much as I enjoy the idea of shopping, but unless I either lose 100 lbs or the fashion industry gets it's head out of the clouds, I think it will be nothing but a wish.

I am all for body positivity and wearing the clothes you want to wear and feeling confident in them, and I praise the bigger girls who are out there slaying in their bikinis and low cut dresses. But that doesn't mean that I can suddenly pull confidence out of thin air. I want clothes that are designed for my body, not a runway model. 

What are your opinions on the high street fashion industry?

Ciao for now,

Katie x