| Wardrobe Must Have: Spanx Body Shapers for Women Who Love Their Curves |
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More full-figured body shapers in sizes up to 10X can be found in the Plus-size Shapewear Directory.
Popularity: 7% [?]
by Jennifer Portnick, Guest Contributor to Elegant Plus Magazine
As a personal trainer and aerobics instructor I often hear, “I know I can be healthy and happy if I just lose a few pounds.” It seems we women, in particular, are always in search of that elusive perfect weight, the one at which we can accept ourselves and our bodies. Of course if we are feeling unhappy in our bodies the solution is to go on a diet, right? After all, any doctor will tell you that thin equals healthy and fat equals unhealthy. We certainly get this same message from going to movies and watching television. The closer we can come to being thin, we believe, the healthier we will become.
Wrong! Based on anecdotal evidence alone we can see that dieting is no solution. How many times have you or someone you know lost weight only to gain it back? How many times have you or someone you know lost weight and gained back more than you lost to begin with? Dr. Glenn Gaesser, author of Big Fat Lies, reports that at any given time nearly half of Americans are dieting to either lose or maintain their weight. According to National Institute of Health, a full 90% plus of dieters fall into the first category, and more than 80% of people fall into the second. Now, is this because we’re a nation of gluttonous, weak and lazy people who can’t control what we eat, or is there something else going on here that remains unexamined?
Our bodies really have a single goal, and that is to keep us alive. When we begin a diet our bodies immediately register that the nourishment we need to live is in scarce supply, and we prepare for the “famine” biologically by lowering metabolism and storing fat. Little do our bodies know, the “famine” is not due to an actual shortage of food, it is self-imposed.
Despite the body’s tendency to adjust to a dieting state, many of us do lose weight. For as long as we are dieting, though, we can expect to go through a recovery period where we feel hungry for no reason and generally out of control around food. This recovery period is our body’s way of recovering from the “famine” and making sure we do not ever go without again. It is during this time that we tend to regain weight and eat more than our body needs, not out of weakness or gluttony, but because our body is designed to help us survive. And surviving is a good thing, right?
Dieting leads to feelings of anxiety and powerlessness. After all, we think, what can we control if we cannot control our weight? Dieting also teaches us to distrust ourselves and our internal needs. If I were to eat every time I wanted food, the dieter thinks, I’d be as big as a house. I know this because I used to believe it myself, until I stopped dieting.
So if dieting isn’t the answer, then what is? The amazing truth is, our bodies have a built-in system designed to regulate our weight and our appetite which dieters generally try their best to ignore. Once restrictions around food are removed and our bodies are left to regulate themselves, our weights will stabilize and we will find peace with food. Once we are working with our bodies instead of against them, taking care of ourselves completely, we can know a more balanced, healthful existence, where energies are devoted to the truly important things in life, and not to food obsession and body hatred.
For books and resources on women’s health, fitness, self-esteem, exercise, eating disorders and more - visit the Elegant Plus Recommended Book and DVD List.
Plus-size fitness and work out apparel in sizes up to 6X is available though our Activewear Shopping Directory.
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Meet the Author Jennifer Portnick is a size positive aerobics instructor and personal trainer living in San Francisco, California. She gained notoriety last year after she challenged Jazzercise’s “fit appearance” requirement; as a result of mediation, the company no longer requires their instructors to look “leaner than the public.” Jennifer has appeared on a number of television shows including Good Morning America and The View promoting the Health At Every Size philosophy, advocating a non-diet approach for achieving fitness and well being. She is certified as both an aerobics instructor and personal trainer by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America.
For more information about Jennifer Portnick please visit Feeling Good Fitness. |
© 2003 Jennifer Portnick
Popularity: 7% [?]
A reader from Illinois asked a question yesterday, that upon some reflection, I thought might need a more public answer.
She said: “I love the ElegantPlus shopping mall - so many choices (!!) - and your descriptions are very helpful. But I don’t understand what ‘Contemporary Style’ is?”
Aw shucks…. thanks!
The simple answer to her question is:
CONTEMPORARY STYLE - current fashion styles that have a little more pazzazz than your typical “Classic” clothing styles, yet is more sophisticated than trendy. Contemporary style clothing has longer wearing power from season to season than the trendy styles, yet has a modern edge. This style tends to be very popular with working and career women of all ages and the urban and sub-urban over 35 set. As baby-boomers demand more style and youthful apparel Contemporary Style remains age appropriate without being stodgy and grannyish.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Update by Elegant Plus Magazine: The article below was written in 2005. Since then things have become at once slightly more complicated and simpler at the same time. The Lane Bryant Catalog, owned by Redcats, has changed names to Woman Within. Sometime in 2007, Charming Shoppes, the owners of the mall based Lane Bryant, will be launching a catalog by that name. They are also the owners of the Lane Bryant Outlets, although reports have been that unlike traditional outlets, merchandise is actually different than the main store. Only time will tell if the merchandise in the store and the catalog will be the same or similar.
Also our comments about model size and use of mannequins deserves an additional look. While most of the critiques still stand, a display trend which seems to be gaining momentum in the on-line catalog world has us puzzled. Since Lane Bryant (Charming Shoppes) appears to be testing this method it is worth further examination. What is up with real models with their heads cut off? Our experience is that unlike models depicted in real-life settings or in high fashion style shots, this presentation style leaves customers as cold as mannequin and off-figure dispay - probably at twice the cost to the company using it. This type of presentation makes it impossible for the consumer to project themselves into the role of model and envision themselves wearing a garment. No doubt the rationale is to show a larger, more focused shot of the clothing but headless people is somewhat jarring and impersonal. We’d love to see numbers proving this tactic effective, but our’s say otherwise. So while we applaud Lane Bryant’s tentative shift to real plus-size models within the catalog pages rather than simply in the “look book” and landing pages, let’s see their pretty faces!
(June 9, 2005, ElegantPlus.com) One of biggest points of confusion for plus size consumers right now is understanding that Lane Bryant the store they see at their local mall and Lane Bryant the catalog they receive in the mail are, in fact, two different companies. Both are available on line.
So what’s the difference?
1.) Lane Bryant- the contemporary to trendy plus fashion retailer you shop at in the mall: Owned by parent company Charming Shoppes, this Lane Bryant joins it’s sister retailers Catherines
and Fashion Bug
to make up about eighty percent of the plus size apparel market in the United States today.
Currently available in traditional brick & mortar outlets and on-line only, Charming Shoppes recent acquisition of catalog marketer Crosstown Traders will position them to move into the mail order catalog market in the near future. While they are at it, we hope they can smarten up the images of some of the Crosstown Trader brands like Bedford Fair and Old Pueblo Traders
which also already carry plus sizes.
This Lane Bryant carries plus sizes from size 14 to 28W and larger plus sizes must shop at their sister Charming Shoppes store Catherines. While Charming Shoppes does a good job of using plus size models in their advertising campaigns, they have much to learn about on-line and catalog sales - currently preferring to display most of their offering on relatively skinny mannequins with less than inspired photography. I’m sure I’m not alone in my dislike of bland off-model apparel presentation in both internet and mail order catalogs. Maybe it’s a cost-cutting measure, and in some cases it may be something else, but the overall shopping experience in such displays is less than memorable or loyalty inspiring . Besides, in an environment where the customer cannot try a garment on, some idea of how it will look on a real body rather than shaped on an inanimate form is always a good selling point.
Furthermore the frequency in which they sell out of sizes, leaving nothing but Size 14’s on the virtual rack can be a little frustrating to the on-line shopper. A simple solution to this problem would be a “Size Finder” like the one available at trendy, plus-exclusive web-retailer alight.com (now if alight could just find some way to make accurate size charts available for all of its brands, we’d be golden!).
2.) Lane Bryant - the plus size apparel catalog you receive in your mailbox: Owned by French parent company Redcats, Lane Bryant Catalog belongs to a large mail order group including Jessica London , La Redoute , Roaman’s, Lerner, and Chadwick’s of Boston . As a catalog company, they were among the first plus size apparel retailers to transition smoothly to an on-line environment with the necessary back-end support of customer service and centralized order fulfillment centers.
Styles here are much more basic and traditional than those found in the Lane Bryant owned by Charming Shoppes, which often causes much customer confusion. Many plus fashion editors dis them entirely for poor style and fit, although they remain very popular with consumers based on sales figures. I, personally, have mixed feelings about them. They are an excellent source for some very hard to find items elsewhere - like bathing suits in super sizes and wide calf boots. Furthermore tucked away among ho-hum t-shirts and leggings can be a treasure every now and again - and heck, if all you want are some basic summer tees to wear out bike riding, why not? Furthermore, while the plus market is growing, it is still very difficult for the over size 24W crowd to find clothing. Unlike their Charming Shoppes counterpart, Redcat’s Lane Bryant carries sizes as large as a size 44W.
Perhaps the biggest on-going criticism of the entire Redcat’s plus size catalog group is the use of models who are much too small for the clothing they are marketing. Not only is this insulting to the consumer they are trying to serve, but frankly their clothing would look much better with a few curves filling it out. They are not alone in this out-moded marketing faux pas as most well established plus size cataloguers have been reluctant to change their modeling size strategies with the times. Of course, modeling agencies marketing size 8 and 10 women as “plus” to these companies is not helpful either, but that discussion is for another day.
Consequently, both these established plus apparel giants have a lot to learn from relative new comers to the industry. Small plus fashion houses like Kiyonna and Igigi are producing beautiful clothing, modeled by true full figured beauties with noteworthy photography - and they are both growing at a tremendous clip. Torrid is rapidly expanding its brick and mortar presence across the country while running an on-line outlet with curvy images of real plus women in most garments, again with noteworthy photography. Rounding out the trend of using truly curvaceous models combined with excellent photography for most if not all of their offerings are: Nordstrom , Lands’ End , Macy’s and Eddie Bauer which has the unusual system of providing two images with models for an article of clothing - one straight sized and one plus. If this trend keeps going - and I can only imagine and hope that it will - the plus apparel corporate giants are going to start to lose market share in the catalog and internet sectors if they don’ t take notice and make some changes.
Just remember the Lane Bryant mail order catalog and the Lane Bryant brick and mortar store are not the same - at least for now.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Cafe Press - the fabulous spot on the net where you can design and print your own products - is about to expand their product offerings to include a full plus size line - possibly as large as 6X. In order to get it right, and find out what you - the user wants - they’ve asked us to help distribute a survey.
There are also extra opportunities to get involved for San Franciscans too…. who can help with fitting and modeling! So if you live in the San Francisco area and want more information include your e-mail address in the optional field.
Please, take a few minutes to answer their survey and help make plus size t-shirts in stylish styles available to print with your own logos and ideas! They might get more than t-shirts and sweatshirts in too….. but only if you speak up!
Link to Cafe Press Plus Size Survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?A=113533930E21912
Survey closes, Friday February 17, 2006.
Thanks to all who participate!
Popularity: 7% [?]
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