In theory, getting a custom dress all your own sounds like it could really be the avocado on your toast.
But of all the “cool girl” brands offering online shoppers the option to tweak a hemline or embellish a collar, it’d be swell to see “in my size” as an option for curvier women.
Reformation vet Sarah Staudinger offers seriously reasonably priced threads with STAUD, an online retailer that lets you switch up the fabrics, remove sleeves, and bedazzle it with (sophisticated) pom poms, beadwork, and fringey trims. Everything is commendably affordable for how beautifully designed it is. Love that you’ll see plenty of the Reformation greatest hits on the site. They’ve got your new looking vintage sets and the deep neckline, expertly cut dresses the color of sand. As the style description on their “Henry” dress goes, the princess seams ensure that it “caters to all body types.” Great. But it would be better than a Beyonce and Mariah Carey Christmas special, if it didn’t stop at a Large (12.) If the company will let us remove the sleeves on a jumpsuit, it shouldn’t be too far of a stretch for us to say take the waist out a notch or two.
We all know that one man’s size 12 is another man’s size 4.3. So an affordable custom clothier could really make it rain if they went beyond a handy dropdown menu of all sizes, but gave us fields into which we could enter our dimensions. So everyone could have their very own a crochet tank with a house on it LIKE WE DESERVE IF WE PAY FOR INTERNET AND HAVE GOOD TASTE. It would really be to the delight of everyone we met to have investment pieces made just for us. We pine for the day when we can stop asking for this, but until then there’s sweatshirts.
Lucinda Trask’s customizable clothing line LIKE offers lustworthy silk wool crepe trenches, tuxedo blouses, and silk charmeuse tunics that you can play with. If they’re going to let you take the reins when it comes to the sewing machine, why not add more sizes to the mix? That is, if you’re making it from scratch in real time? Where’s the rocket science preventing them from doing it? And yes, we’d pay more for the privilege of wearing a burgundy cord jumper just like the straight-size models, though women shouldn’t have to.
Even if they did think of taking the majority of women into the “cool girl” account, curvier women would still have to deal with the oh-so-fun thrill of shopping without trying it on, but at least they’d have something closely resembling style when it was all said and done. Fame & Partners and SmartGlamour both offer customizable clothing at larger sizes. Fame charges you more while SmartGlamour (less expensive fabrics,) doesn’t. And giant brands like Burberry, Fendi, adidas, Moda Operandi, and Nike will let you play designer and change some of their coats and shoes–but not the cuts.
Really high-quality, youth-driven clothes that scream nextness is still what’s missing for all sizes. So if you’re going to preach all body types, going beyond a 12 would be a start. But even better, indie custom design houses could let customers request a certain size for every part of the garment and then discuss with the designer if their ideas didn’t work. But without custom sizing, the “made just for you according to your exact specifications,” line because some piddly nonsense.