Compliments For Swimsuit Dress, Rite Passage Big Size

I grew up in the 90s, when body positivity was not yet discovered. The brand doesn’t have a plus size line for chubby teens like me can only crave the babydoll tees featured on the Delias catalog page, and there’s still a mall store called 5-7-9 because that’s the only size they carry. If you’re older than that, you leave the mall with your mom crying at least once every school year.

No, there seems to be only one shop in the entire shopping mall where you can buy plus sizes that are guaranteed to make you look like a junior businessman or cover you with hippos or elephants dancing like you. wanted become the subject of a classmate’s joke. (This is one of the reasons I refuse to participate in cow print trend now, despite being so cute on Instagram cute girls. Don’t fall for it, cow print!)

To be honest, you don’t even have to be that fat to be too big for the junior size of the day, cut like that for a teenage girl’s body that looks like a childish uniform. If you instead consist of, I don’t know, a curves, or more problematically, breasts, are all destined to fit like one of those dresses that might actually be a shirt, but you’re not entirely sure. It doesn’t help that low-rise jeans and on-trend belly-flaunting tees are designed to accentuate washboard abs because again, body positivity has yet to be invented. I didn’t see my first fat girl in a crop top until at least 2011.

But among the horror houses that are the plus size fad of today, one trend stands out in my memory as being downright terrifying. It’s a plus size swimsuit, and if you were a fat girl in the ’90s, you probably wore it.

Shopping for swimsuits as a chubby teenager isn’t all that great, as you might think. I was also raised Southern Baptist evangelical, so in addition to being fat, I had to reckon with the sin of having a set of incredible tatas that might tempt the boys during our separate swim time at Christian summer camp. I wore my first bikini at 28 for an article. I don’t even remember having a good one-piece or tankini as a teenager.

Story continues

Instead, it’s always a swimsuit. There’s probably nothing inherently offensive about a swimsuit with a skirt in itself, though I’d argue it’s not the most effective design, given its intended function. The offending part is that a swimsuit with a skirt, which covers the thighs and the back and distracts from the belly, is the default plus size option for young girls.

There’s got to be a reason the suits are being marketed for oversized women and girls, says Amanda Richards, host and creator big calf, a podcast about growing up as a fat kid. I think part of it is about hiding the kind of midsection that is deemed unsightly or unfit to look at, but I also think about the fact that fat women and girls are often pushed into femininity as a way to make obesity acceptable such as, sending the message that no it’s okay to have curves as long as you’re being very feminine about it.

I’ve been wearing a skirt swimsuit since I hit puberty and am old enough to realize that I’m fatter than other girls and the right thing to do is hide my disgusting body so other people won’t make fun of me on the beach (or so I think it will act like a shield to know what my body really looks like), said Alexis Krase, owner More BKLYN, a New York City boutique selling plus size used and vintage clothing. I do hate her style, and while I feel protected, I also feel like a very uncool grandma on the beach.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a skinny teen in a swimsuit, just as I’ve seen a skinny teen in one of my Dillards mini shorts. I’m willing to explore they didn’t even make it in straight size then, or at least didn’t store it extensively in that section. But the plus size part is bad for them because the assumption is that us bigger girls will want to cover up.

And frankly, many of us probably do. We are far from Ashley Graham and Fresh Gabi had a swimsuit line that exposed the flesh and coined the term fatkini. Magazine cover lines are still talking about how to get your best beach body, not the now common mantra that every body is a beach body. We’re taught to cover up in our relentless pursuit of flattering, which every fat girl knows means thinner. I have 57 black cardigans and no horizontal stripes.

The first time I wore a size 14 bikini, I felt so insecure. But I also feel something else the sun and summer breeze on bare skin, skin I’ve never shown before. And it feels great because getting as close to casual clothes as possible on a hot day feels great.

And look, skirt swimsuits aren’t completely extinct yet. They still sell the stuff. I recently searched for swimsuits at Target and found several options including one for bragging ruching slimming control, which many retailers toss into plus size clothing to hide bumps and bumps. And if you’re still wearing it because you like it or feel more comfortable wearing it, I think that’s great.

But skirted swimsuits are no longer the dominant plus-size swimsuit paradigm, and today, we have the option of showing off our assets at the level we feel most comfortable with. It is no longer assumed that women who are larger than size 12 should want to cover our lower half.

Today, there are many options for plus-size women, although sizes are still limited and niches to find (as is the growing plus-size clothing market in general), Krase says. But at least the style is more modern and accessible, and if you’re looking to find something skimpy for small and medium-sized chubby ladies, you probably can.

He added: Anyway, today I’m wearing a suit with my awesome belly.

And that’s really all plus size women asking for options. The same choices straight women have: to cover or bare our bodies however we feel most comfortable.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related…