Big and Beautiful

In Britain today the most purchased clothing size in the UK is a size 12 and the plus-size clothing market has grown nearly 50% to £3.8 billion in the last five years. There is a growing demand for larger and more fashionable plus size clothing as 40% of women in the UK are size 16 and over, plus size consumers are now the majority so it makes sense that retailers cater for this market.

With the growth in plus size fashion comes the explosion of "fatshionista" blogs, fashion blogs created by plus size women. Two of the most popular bloggers are Georgina Horne from Fuller Figure,Fuller Bust.com and Bethany Rutter from Arched eyebrow.com, who have both fronted design duo Clements Ribeiro's campaign for Evans.The pair have complained that the fashion industry as a whole fail to recognise that larger women want fashionable clothes too! The new line features bright colours, patterns and prints and have said the line has been inspired by Schiaparelli.

Georgina Horne in Clements Ribeiro for Evans

Bethany Rutter for Clements Ribeiro for Evans

I've also been looking at Danni Minogue's plus sized clothing range 'Project D' at SimplyBe which has pretty prints, and sophisticated flattering dresses ranging from Size 14-28.

A big contender in plus size fashion is online store ASOS' range ASOS curve. I often find myself on ASOS really liking a top or dress to find it's exclusive to the ASOS curve line. Bad news for me, but great for plus size ladies that there is clothing out there that is plus size and fashionable!

ASOS curve

New Look is also another high street store doing plus size fashion right with their plus size line Inspire.

New Look Inspire

Last month H&M brought out images for their H&M plus size swimwear range for the summer featuring their size 12 model, Jennie Runk.

Plus size fashion is definitely looking up!