The mushrooming of international clothing outlets have brought joy to most women in Malaysia as they no longer have to wear the same old brand and there are finally more varieties of clothes to choose from. Bukit Bintang KL was even dubbed as a shopping haven as most of the shopping centres are located next to each other. While most people are enjoying the ultimate shopping experience with joy and satisfaction, problem arises as the availability of the plus size clothing was greatly reduced when boutiques began cutting back on larger clothing sizes.
Curvy women in Malaysia are finding it frustrating to find clothing that fit their curvier figure as most of the clothes are too small or too tight for them. To make things worse, most of the clothing outlets only stock clothing up to UK12, making it almost impossible for plus size women to find clothes that fit.
Some women have opted to lose weight in order to fit into size 12 or below, but that really isn’t a reason why a woman should lose weight. To a lot of larger-framed women, it was heartbreaking to find they couldn’t fit into their favourite clothes despite being proud of their healthy and curvy figure. Thus some of them had to put comfort over style and buy maternity clothes and even men’s clothes instead.
Recently a news report by The Star discussed and interviewed some plus-sized women in Malaysia who had difficulties in finding clothes that fit their size. According to the report, the management of major clothing outlets such as Cotton On and Forever 21 made the decision to not bring in clothing sizes more than UK size 12 as Asian women are generally smaller in size. Swedish brand H&M houses a range of plus sized clothing line in two of the chain’s outlets only as the PR manager stated that it’s a business decision to not order unpopular choices. (Source)
As a result, most plus-size women tend to shop overseas as Western countries usually have plus-sized fashion boutiques and the international outlets usually create an array of plus-sized clothing line. In Malaysia, they had to single out the larger size clothes first before looking at the eye-catching design as they need to find clothes that fit their body size. However, a few local fashion brands such as FLOW and Ms Read have created an extensive plus size collection for curvy and full-figured women in Malaysia. These fashion labels aim to make plus-size women feel proud of their own bodies and glorify the femininity. These local fashion brands have made it easier to look for plus-size clothing as the size range from size US 8 to US 18.
Student and plus-sized blogger, Ginny (not her real name) shares her lament on her shopping woes:
“I’ve always found it hard to find clothes that fit. Having wide-set hips and finding a comfortable pair of jeans with the right fit is like looking for a needle in a haystack here. A lot of stores that do cater to plus-sized women somehow feel that plus-sized women only wear straight cut denim, shirts and tunics, and that’s really not the case. Everyone should be able to be able to wear what everyone wears. But I never let my size compromise my sense of style, and I’m not embarrassed that I sometimes shop at the maternity section at Topshop. If it’s stylish and it fits, who cares?”
Although we are glad that there are some plus-size clothing brands in Malaysia, but the choices are simply not enough and the cut back on larger clothing size in international outlets simply narrowed down the choices.
“Fortunately, Malaysia is one of the many few countries in South East Asia to cater to plus-sized women. Shopping in Hong Kong and Singapore for plus-sized options was such a disappointment, so I’m extremely glad that Malaysia’s making the attempt”, expressed Ginny.
It is simply unfair for plus-size women who wants to flaunt their personal style but being tied down to the “average” culture. We certainly believe that more plus-size clothing lines should be made available in the fashion brands especially among designer’s fashion brands and local fashion brands.
