"Full Fashion": What happens on Fashion Day for girls plus-size
March 9 has passed Plus Size Fashion Day is a collection of members of the community of the same name in the Viber application, which reads more than 60,000 girls. These fashion days have already been held in St. Petersburg three times, and this year the event came to Moscow. Wonderzine went to PSFD to understand what is happening with the plus-size-fashion in Russia, what problems Russian girls face with forms and why such events are needed.
"Our task is not only to connect the consumer with the brand, but first of all to show the beauty of girls with forms. To show that there are brands that sew such clothes, and to attract the attention of those brands that are interesting to us, but our sizes do not sew," explains Natalia Markova, PSFD producer. Show brands start at the entrance. All visitors and visitors receive a catalog of clothing Taillissime, the line of large sizes of the company La Redoute. Two small rooms filled with incredibly feminine girls. Dresses in the floor, curls, perfect formal makeup - there is no place for sneakers. Well, I'm not in them.
The program of the event includes a master class on how to hide figure flaws, three shows on an improvised podium between the chairs and in the final - a mysterious interactive contest. On both sides of the catwalk on the screens are movies with tiny Audrey Hepburn. The whole evening reminds a big bachelorette party. The leading, slim blonde from MTV Tata Mehrabian is talking to all the participants in turn, one of the organizers of the event discusses her shoes with the guests. During the master class, Lera Owl, the stylist and owner of the store “Full Fashion”, several times asks the few present men - mostly photographers and those who came for the company with their girlfriend - to close their ears and talk “between us girls”.
Between us girls, they say that you should first love yourself, and then explain in detail what you should or should not wear with different types of figure, why buy corrective underwear and which neckline is right for you if you have small breasts. Girls walk on the catwalk as if dressed up in maxi-dresses, mostly with floral prints, not correlating with modern fashion - purchasers of almost any plus-size clothing store think in the same way. However, it seems that it suits everyone. Natalia Yorga, one of the models participating in the shows, shares: "Zdorovskie brands, very beautiful dresses, in general, bows are created with very great trepidation." There is only the second show, styled by Leroy Owl, with more bold black and burgundy leather skirts and trousers-pipes. Against the background is playing house, where the girl sings in a sensual voice: "I'm a sexy girl 'Cause I have a beautiful body, body. I'm a sexy boy' Cause I have a beautiful business".
Suddenly, his beautiful body is also shown by a slender catwalk walker, when he goes on stage and constantly twists for an entire song. This is a strange contrast - the conversation about the beauty of large girls is not only centered around the social convention of beauty, but is also surrounded by constant reminders of the outside world. The flirtatious question of the host, “Oh, am I slim?”, Audrey Hepburn, who had once again returned to thinness, a dancer who could serve as an illustration of the phrase “Fit is the new skinny,” is unlikely the organizers would like to specifically introduce a variety of types here. female figure or offend someone, just turned out the way it happened.
Designers of specialized clothing for obese girls usually follow one of two paths that reflect their main problems: desexualization and hypersexualization. This means that plus-size girls usually have to choose between tight-fitting dresses with deep cleavage, loudly translating the idea of “shape is sexy and like men”, or outfits that most resemble a bag. In Russia, the second option is more common than the first, and the heroines of the event clearly intend to begin to regain the right to emphasized femininity and sexuality. “I’m missing color, juiciness, brightness, big-shape items on the market,” says Victoria Shapran, a plus-size model. Lera Owl adds that in Russian society, large sizes are associated with age and young women are turned off from the mainstream even at this level.
There is an opinion that the creation of separate communities for different groups, for example, plus-size, is a kind of discrimination and only prevents them from integrating normally into society, since they fulfill their needs mainly here, and for the majority remain invisible. On the other hand, the parable about the broom is inevitably remembered: there is no room in the room for the prejudices before full people who exist in ordinary life. No more than a hundred girls came here, and here and now they feel the most beautiful. Not at all due to the corrective underwear or the correct cut.
