The Girdle, Ugh

We've worn girdles before, and we didn't like them. We sat here, bored, watching television, and wondering who the hell came up with the idea of sucking in a woman's curves in such a restricting, painful way? We think that it had to be a man, because certainly no woman would want to have her guts squeezed and pushed all this way and that.

We decided to do some research. We found out that the whole mess started with corsets, and probably in ancient Greece. According to WikiPedia, "A corset is a garment that girds the torso and shapes it according to the fashionable silhouette of the day." 

We guess that some man told his wife that he liked the way another woman's curves worked, so  she decided to get the same look. We see that all the time in our culture, everyone wants Angelina's lips and J-Lo's (or Kim Kardashian's) butt. So, monkey-see, monkey-do is kind of understandable in this age of keeping up with the Joneses, so it stands to reason that they'd be like-minded back in the day.

Originally, corsets were made from cotton sateen and twill, and laced up the back, then they moved to putting bone in them, largely whale bone, to maintain that beautiful hourglass shape. Corsets have become a fashion statement these days, and women are wearing them as parts of their outfits (not to mention those folks who wear the pretty latex ones and get to beat people for a living. Did we just type that outloud?)

But, the girdle. Where did that come from?

The word girdle originally meant belt, worn around the midsection. They were hugely popular in the 1900's and were made from rubber or elasticized fabric. The had hook and eye closures. Today they're made from powerful elastic and can be pulled on, zipped up or closed with hooks and eyes. We women are even blessed with "power panties," girdles that can be pulled on and worn like underwear.

But why do we wear them?

Well, we wear them to hide our flaws and suck all our fluffiness into someone else's preconceived idea of the perfect shape. We wear them to look like someone else. We wear them so that we can fulfill someone else's expectations of what we should look like.

Personally, we think girdles bunk. We shouldn't be ashamed of our figures, we should be proud of them. Ladies, there is no "perfect" shape. We are who we are and we definitely shouldn't be afraid to be us. (Heck, we don't even wear slips, what are they going to see? Legs?)

Mark this one down as a "no" for us, even of Oprah does swear by Spanx.

Where We Shop

It used to be hard to find plus sized clothing that fit well and looked stylish, but these days retailers seem to be paying attention to customer's demands. Designers such as Liz Claiborne and Ralph Lauren are making plus-sized clothing for us curvy girls. (YAY!)

We here at SIZED UP have stumbled upon a plethora of plus-sized clothing retailers online and have decided to give you a rundown of the good, the bad and the ugly, not in any particular order.

1. Hips and Curves offers plus and extended plus sized lingerie, sexy costumes and fetish wear. What we do like: It's nice to find little hot pink ruffled boy shorts in our size. We REALLY like that their models are curvy women. What we don't like: Their extended sizes do not venture into 30/32W territory and some items can be a little pricey.
2. OneStopPlus is the holy grail of fat (yeah, we said it) wear. The two big companies for plus-sized clothing were always the Lane Bryant catalog (not to be confused with the Lane Bryant stores) and Roaman's. This site combines the two heavyweights (heh) with a few other notable labels such as Avenue and Jessica London. What we do like: This website has nearly everything a plus-sized diva could want or need. They offer a broad spectrum of affordable styles and sizes (including super-sized- 6x and up) in casual, career wear and intimates. They also always have specials such as free shipping and deep discounts for their return customers. And, let's not forget the wide-width shoes! What we don't like: Their clearance items go super fast, and some of the more popular sizes (which usually equals the more hard to find sizes) sell out quickly on non-clearance items.
3. Ulla Popkin carries in-house label clothing. What we do like: Ulla Popkin's clothes are, in a word, delicious. Their clothes are comfortable and the sizes run up to 6X (38W). What we don't like: Again, we have to use the word pricey. Also, some of their designs seem to lean towards the cheesy instead of the stylish.
4. Avenue has a good online presence as part of OneStopPlus, but we've included them here because they deserve their own mention. What we do like: Style, style, style... Avenue has it. Add in good value pricing and their Avenue Soft brand carries some of the most comfortable clothing we've ever worn. What we don't like: Their "special sizes" section runs only up to size 32 and consists of mostly jeans and pants.
5. Sealed with a Kiss Designs is relatively new and offering very stylish clothing. What we do like: This site has some really cute clothes and some of their designs run up to size 6X (34/36). What we don't like: Again, price. Not much else, though,. These girls have it going on.
6. Fashion  Bug's plus sized online store offers a wide selection of cute and stylish clothing. What we do like: Like we said, cute and stylish. Also, their prices are good. We've ordered from them quite a few times. What we don't like: No extended sizes and they are often out of stock on a lot of items.

As always, we are here to serve you. If you have a link to an online store you would like to share, don't hesitate to leave a comment and we'll review the shop and add it to the list!