The Illusive Plus Size Wedding Dress

Ever wonder why you can find lots of beautiful plus size dresses online but when it comes to tracking them down, you need a private investigator, £5000 and a rental car to take you to outer Mongolia? Me too! I’m here to be real with you. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with bridal shops. Fact.

When I started investigating into a curvier range for our boutique, I was looking not only for beautiful and modern designs (easy enough), with fantastic structure (slightly harder) and the ability to order in REAL plus sizes (one plus designer that I loved went to a maximum size 24…..I mean, for reals?) Turns out finding all three things is like hunting for a unicorn.

Problem 1 –boutiques that want to stock plus size dresses but struggle to find designs that are current, fashionable and will give curvier brides the structure, comfort and support they need…

Problem 2 – brides trying to find a boutique that stock these gorgeous dresses! And so the cycle of confusion and frustration continues!

Here are a couple of things I’ve discovered on my plus journey – some interesting, some good, some seriously annoying. Lets start with the interesting…..

Did you know that designing for the curve market requires additional study and technical abilities when sewing? I had no idea but when you think about it, I suppose it makes sense. You can’t simply take a design that’s been crafted for a size 10 bride and scale it up to accommodate a wonderfully voluptuous cleavage for a size 24 bride. There is a lot more to be taken into consideration when dealing with curves to make sure that the structure and the fit is right.

NB: that doesn’t mean that curvy girls should have less choice, it means that we need to educate ourselves more. Also, it doesn’t stop some designers simply making a bigger dress and calling it ‘plus size’ when it really shouldn’t be. Beware….

 Next there becomes the issue of the boutiques themselves. I understand totally why some boutiques are ‘plus specialists’ and I actually think it’s a great idea. It allows the shop to order all of their stock in real plus sizes so that the curvy babes amongst us have their pick of the entire shop. These shops are sadly few and far between and some unfortunately still fall prey to the “every plus size bride must want a big meringue to hide beneath” so you really don’t get the variety that young, curvalicious brides are looking for. (I am obsessed with fitted dresses on curvy girls – I can’t get enough!)

So then, you’ll try a non-specialist boutique because their website mentions ‘plus size bridal’, but when you arrive, their biggest sample available to try is a UK20 – brilliant (insert disgruntled emoji here). Bridal always comes up smaller than high-street clothing so if you’re anything bigger than a size UK18, nothing is actually going to fit. It’s all well and good promoting body confidence and inclusivity, but when you don’t practise what you preach, the shiny exterior starts to melt away and your clients end up feeling deflated after a failed search. (Side note – our current LUSH CURVE collection ranges from a UK20 to a UK30 in store but by September we will be up to a UK36).

Boutiques who advertise ‘plus size’ hear me when I yell – “PLEASE ACTUALLY STOCK PLUS SIZE”.

I’m of course not saying that every shop has to stock plus size if they really don’t want to (buh-bye Sandra), but if you’re advertising it, then do it properly! That’s like me advertising that I sell cars and then when you get to my shop, I’ve only got the wheels and the windscreen wipers. Come off it!

 Lastly, I want to share my sentiments. I am a girls girl. I want every woman, size 4 or size 34 to feel AMAZING, beautiful, confident and powerful when they’re standing in front of my mirrors. I don’t believe that a bride who’s a size 8 looks any better than a bride who’s a size 28. I ADORE curves. I love the way my curvy brides fill out my dresses. Their boobs, waists, hips, bums, legs. They look AMAZING. I believe that we still have a lot of work to do in practising what we preach about body confidence and body positivity. There are plus size designers out there but until boutiques start buying the designs to stock in their shops, we’re never going to get anywhere!

 It’s at this point I feel I should mention that my obsession to track down plus size wedding dresses started with Modeca Curves. I found ‘Modeca’ back in 2018 and quickly fell in love with their Curve collection. The structure, the cuts, the fit, the details – they’ve got it covered and they really do enhance a curvy body without hiding it or misshaping it! I’m was and still am very proud to stock this line of dresses and so my curvy journey began!

Two years of searching later (after a failed few attempts to find anything that came close to these dresses) and I’ve found my second unicorn in Studio Levana. Each of their dresses comes with optional corsetry, either half corset or full corset AND optional sleeves. Yup, every dress. They are stylish, fun, playful and beautiful designs and I am so excited to share these with you in September 2021! (Or if you’re reading after September 2021, then hurry up and book your appointment!)

I hope this helps my curvy brides understand why they might be struggling to find that perfect dress and I want to abolish the myth that it’s your fault. It’s not. As an industry, we have a long way to go and I will be there every step of the way to champion the REAL plus designers, the boutiques that promote body confidence and stock a variety of sizes for every bride. I stand with you!

Hannah x