Does "plus size" have to = ugly clothes?

I'd like to share a few things with you.
First, I'm going to be 40 in February.
Second, I'm a size 14/16 on a good day.
Third, curvy girls shouldn't shop at Forever 21.

I went to the mall tonight with my sister. She was shopping, I was tagging along to make snarky comments like "1984 called...it wants those jeans back," and to offer sage advice about cute clothes that weren't from 1984.

Plus size jeans at Forever 21.

We decided to stop in at Forever 21. I was interested in seeing what their "plus size" section was like, since at times I am able to wear certain "flowy" jackets from their "average" section.

This blog post developed as I walked through the store, getting irritated. And angry.

I wonder when (if ever) clothes designers are going to realize that just because someone is "plus size" (or as I like to call us ... NORMAL, since the average woman IS a size 14) doesn't mean she wants to wear tops with animal faces on them. Nor do we want to wear jeans that look like the person wearing them was attacked by an angry mob of preschoolers armed with paint.

Just because I'm a size 14/16 doesn't mean I should feel like I need to wear this:

Zippers. And Cheetah faces. Wrong in any size.

And why should any self-respecting "plus size" woman need to wear this:

And don't even get me started about those jeans up there.

Why are the "ugly" clothes always in the plus size department? Just because I have an ass and boobs and hips does not mean that I should have to look unstylish. Or ugly. I want to feel pretty just like every other woman out there, regardless of what size we are.

And there wasn't much in the "plus size" section at Forever 21 that would make me feel pretty. Frumpy? Sure. There was a lot of frumpy going on. For the record, being curvy does not make one frumpy. I can rock my curves given the right clothes - and would do so proudly. But not in a top with a cheetah face on the front.

And not in this:

Pardon MY French, Forever 21, but your clothes designers are really a bunch of poopheads. And the only thing they managed to do in your Toledo store was offend this plus size shopper. Sure, at age oh-my-God-I'm-almost-40, perhaps I'm not the demographic you're trying to reach. Maybe this is your ploy to keep me at Lane Bryant. It's working. Last week, I found the cutest, most flattering little black dress at Lane Bryant. For the most part, their designers "get it."

Forever 21...you don't get it. Why do the "normal" women get clothes like this?

Is it because "plus size" women shouldn't look cute in a little black dress? I mean how HARD would it be to make that dress right there in a 1x, 2x or higher? And while we're on the topic of size...can I just tell you how much I hate the "X" in sizes? Why can't we have small, medium, and large in plus size? We know we're already "plus" do we really need that "X"?

My point is this...the average American woman is a size 14. We are not a minority when it comes to clothing. So why is it that we are basically given the scraps at certain stores? Why don't we get the same clothing options as the skinny girls? Why can't we be beautiful and sparkly and have little black dresses with lace on the sleeves? Why do we get cheetah faces and stupid French mustaches?

Here's a thought for all clothing designers out there....stop treating your curvy shoppers like we don't deserve to be pretty and sexy. And start designing clothes for all women, regardless of their size. If you can make a dress in a size 2 then you can damn well make it in a 22. If you can design a cute sweater in a size 6 then I'm sure you can design it for a size 16.

Except for this...

Don't ever make this is "plus size" ... because quite frankly, it's just wrong in any size.