Hi my name is Lucy and nothing fits me.
This is an issue that's bothered me for a while and I've wanted to discuss on here for a long time but I've found it so hard to express, but I'm going to give it a go...
A quote I love, and a mantra I try to tell myself a lot, is "There's no wrong way to have a body". I'm a big advocate of body positivity and believer that every and all body shapes and sizes are beautiful. However, if I'm honest, the past couple weeks have really damaged my relationship with my body and really challenged my self-esteem. Telling yourself that "there's no wrong way to have a body" only goes so far when numerous stores and pieces seem to be telling you otherwise.
Last week I was quick on the buzzer to order a number of items from the Archive By Alexa range when they were released. I loved the pieces and I was so bloody excited when I opened the parcel. Yet none of it fit me. And trying on 3 different items- a dress, a skirt and a playsuit- and having none of them fit nicely (or look at all decent) on your body, it does come as a real kick to your confidence. This isn't me slagging off Alexa's designs or the range as I love it, and all the pieces look beautiful on other people, but it became immediately obvious to me that these pieces were designed for Alexa's body shape, not mine. As a true pear shape, those clothes did not like my hips.
I then headed out to the high-street. No skirts in New Look fit me, H&M seems to insist I'm a size 14/16 (I'm a 10/12!), and primark only wants things to fit on either my boobs or my hips, but never ever both. And I'm not alone! I regularly talk to friends who also dread shopping as the sizings and fit of clothes only makes you feel sub-par.
All bodies are beautiful, and every body shape deserves clothes that not only fit, but make you feel amazing! Yet it's becoming more and more clear that retailers cater to this standard of beauty we see plastered over magazines and adverts. Cater for this dreamy, perfectly-in-proportion body that very few people have. And so many of us are left feeling locked out of high street stores that don't seem to understand that some of us have hips, or bums, or boobs!
Personally, my relationship with my body has changed a lot over the past years, and generally I've become more confident in myself and learnt to love my very strangely proportioned body. Yet there's something about high street sizings that really does get to me. I can't tell you how many times I've had a little cry in a changing room or left a shop feeling insecure or upset. I know in the grand scheme of things, a skirt in New Look not fitting me isn't the end of the world, but to me walking into a shop that has nothing to fit my shape, makes me feel inadequate and putting it bluntly, it makes me feel like there is something wrong with my body shape and that my body isn't good enough.
In 2016, when there's been such a movement towards the acceptance and celebration of different body shapes in fashion and a movement towards body positivity, why are some stores still only catering for this straight-up-and-down body and changing sizings to make a 10 more like a 6? Why are clothes still built around mannequins that are in no way representative of an actual real human body?
Things need to change. Stores really need to get on board with this wave of positivity and celebration and realise that women are not plastic mannequins, we are people with differing, but equally beautiful, shapes and sizes and contours. And we all deserve to feel beautiful.
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