“Plus Size Clothes” It wasn’t too long ago that Plus Size Clothes was the most hideous to shop for and wear. The experience of entering a store to find the Plus Size Clothes was, first, such a dreaded experience, that we big, full-figured, Rubenesque, or chunky ones would opt for the muumuu grandma sent from Hawaii or the hand-me-down sweat pants and plaid shirt grandpa left us in his will.

The entering of a Plus Size Clothes store was up there on the scale of most-dreaded things to do, EVER, up there with or even over going to the dentist. And even dentists were kinder. The sales clerks were (until SOMEBODY got a clue) petite, pretty, and pretty snooty. The would visibly or audibly express their disdain, rolling their eyes or sighing as they had to get off the phone with Johnny Macho to walk us to the special section, obscured way in the back of the store, where very few selections hung tauntingly on a neglected rack.

And our choices were just as appealing. Of the rare selection of Plus Size Clothes were the sparkled, spangled, appliquéd t-shirts, ugly skirts with elastic waist-bands that the makers didn’t bother to disguise, and sleeveless, tacky-printed smocks. Where in the manual of sizes did it read that large women be-decked themselves in glitter? Where was it mandates that the only Plus Size Clothes to be made and sold would be that WITHOUT sleeves, so we could advertise even further the flapping folds of fat? And of all the styles, designers, and designs, how is it that only an elastic band would do for a waist?

Ah, but then a very wise entrepreneurship of a select few caught un that—however unfortunately—there were a huge number of huge women that wore clothes that didn’t flash like a Christmas tree or didn’t look like a garden of curtains. Delta Burke, who went from beauty queen to oversized star for numerous reasons, created a rational line of large women clothing, with pants that had lines and suit jackets that had style. J. Jill, Plus Size, and other markets caught on to the viability of profits in the large women clothing industry. And one god-awful expensive but beautiful and realistic clothing line was offered in malls across the country: Lane Bryant offered nylons and tights that didn’t stop at just below the hips when you put them on, skirts that had a panel waist with buttons running down to the hem and a swirly A-line design that shaped and contoured even the squarest potato body shape. The suits had darts and plackets. The dresses had a subtlety of color combinations and a simplicity of design—without being akin to a Hefty bag.

And so women’s rights takes another large step forward…and we are not forced any longer to squash into spikes or spin and swirl with the sparkle of silver daisies or poppies splayed across a size 22 tee.