Dear Vogue, where’s my size?

The world makes us believe it is hard to dress the plus-size woman.

Well…

Even in Africa where the female anatomy is more voluptuous in structure, we have our very own fashion designers, experts, and stylists shirk the larger populace of big women all in the name of keeping it simple, svelte and trendy. The message you get from that is: “Dear fat one, you cannot afford to be chic, elegant or polished. Your excess is enough to worry about (gulp)!”

This is heart-breaking as I have heard of situations where designers, commissioned to dress a set of people, fight over the skinny ones whilst making it very clear – in hush voices of course – that they wouldn’t be pleased to have their designs on the big ones.

And I wonder where we obtained this aversion for ourselves. And how do we sleep at night when we blatantly deny who we are because in every family, you most likely would find one big person. Is it alien to us – this size? If not, then it’s just unbecoming of us to act like we are not structured in certain ways and be proud of it. But it is easy to understand, as everything we have become thus far has been borrowed – our sense of style, our politics, our idea of love and marriage, our accent, everything.

Still, it doesn’t erase the fact that over 70% of women both young and old are on the thick side. We are Africans, that’s just the way we are built. Should we apologise for the way we are?

I have encountered situations where I get into a shop and there’s nothing in my size. You get the impression that shopping is reserved for smaller people. I find it hard to get my size of jeans, tees, dresses, skirts, name it! While my not-so-big friends have their bags full of goodies, I’m still skipping from shop to shop trying to find one fitting shirt. It’s frustrating; and that is the shopping life of a plus-sized woman in a world that keeps denying we exist!

When you walk into the electronic door in a bank, as a plus-size, the crazy door literally screams for you to get out of it. The embarrassment is just….aaaarrrrrggghhhh!!!!

In restaurants they make chairs for their guests as if we are allowed to sit with only a half of our buttocks…

I can go on and on but I know you get my drift; nothing is made to satisfy the larger number of people that exist – who are big naturally.

In the olden days, it was ok to have some meat on your bones. It was counted as beautiful. In some culture, women were taking to “fattening rooms” so they can add some weight before meeting their husbands, and so on.

I do understand the health implications of being obese. But we aren’t talking about obesity, are we? We are talking about being plump, big, thick which might be hereditary or even by choice. Either way, it doesn’t automatically mean that you are unhealthy. Skinny can also be very unhealthy. And it is this crazy desire to remain skinny and perfect for a magazine cover that has driven a lot of beautiful young women – both black and white – to extreme measures that result in anorexia or bulimia.

But let’s not depress ourselves with thoughts of our so-called ‘imperfections’. On Thursday, I shall be heading to stores with my energetic publicist, Joy Isi Bewaji (who happens to be obsessed with being and staying skinny by the way. Oh Joy, LOL!), to get some fancy materials and accessories to start working on my fashion line – for the plus-size woman!

I strongly believe the plus-size woman should feel sexy, desirable, beautiful, confident in whatever she wears, and if the world continues to deny her that sense of belonging, then it is up to me to build an empire around it. Yes I can!

Get ready cos in only a few weeks to come we shall be launching the Adaora line. It’s a decade old dream, I have books of sketches, and had at one time tried to partner with someone to achieve it but it fell on the wayside. This time nothing is stopping us. Amen!

You shall be the first to see the outcome of our work.

Have a jolly day!

- Adaora