I hope you’ll be able to find someone for this, it’ll be a great addition to your website. I have a couple of Big Girl family members and I really need fashion advice when it comes to buying for them. Fantastic idea!

Hooray! The Manolo, he is full of ideas to help the people of all sizes. And it is especially appreciated by those for whom the fashion designers think should always dress in the enormous, gaudy floral prints or the ill-fitted shirts with sequins. (Sigh.) I eagerly await this launch!

Oh Manolo, truly you make this Big Girl’s dreams come true!

I will express my love and gratitude with this interpretive dance! (WARNING: Please stand well away from the bosoms during this performance: they are deadly weapons.)

Though I’m not qualified to help in this capacity, I did want to comment that it’s a brilliant idea, and one that will undoubtedly be met with major success in the US. Exactly what this marketing girl would expect from the genius that is the Manolo.

I bow at your supr-fantastically shod feets! We fat women/big girls/zaftig mamas do need a voice!

I am hoping that the writers will be of the “Big Girl” demographic (and I don’t mean what the stores or designers consider big – 12/14.)

Best of luck to the candidates!

Wonderful! Thank you, Manolo!

I think this is a great idea. I have some friends that would love a site such as the one you describe.

Given my time spent absorbing all that is the Manolo (which is not much, as I am a fairly new reader), I just want to say: “Hooray!!!” Your content, and the content to which you link, has been entertaining and inspirational in helping me find my own sense of style. As a girl who is hovering around that 12/14 mark, I’m not quite a BBW, but most fashion today seems to center around those significantly smaller than me. And I can’t even beging to express how relieved I am to see higher-waisted pants (jeans in particular) and longer tops coming back “in”. I absolutely trust that the person(s) you select for this new blog will continue in your vein of presenting the super-fantastic fashion to those of us whose bodies may not fit the mainstream “norm”.

I hope you’ll make t-shirts for “big-” and “middle-” sized women, as well. I would love to buy a super fantastic t-shirt and announce my fabulosity with the onomatopoeic ‘¡Ayyyyy!,’ but there’s no way that all 38 inches of my chest will fit comfortably or with dignity into what the site advertises as wares “ideal for the petite framed young lady.”

Is there a reason the size 12/14s and the size 22/24s need to start fighting?

The plus-size super fantastic girl is certainly underserved by the market, no argument there. But I can tell you NO ONE is addressing the needs of that 165-pound super fantastic girl … and she is legion, or would be if she could find a dam’ thing to put on. Surely there’s room for a wide audience on the new blog — let’s not encourage the Manolo and/or the lesser media to over-segment this exciting developing market into a multifarious over-niched obscurity.

If the new blog does nothing else but explain why size 16 blouses have sleeves that are 92 inches long, I’ll be it’s slave for life. Seriously why? Why do women’s size blouses have such uber-long sleeves?

Re: Phyllis’s comment which showed up while I was still typing:

Women’s blouses have sleeves that are always too SHORT for me – sigh..
Another thing – fashion for the small framed big girl (i.e. narrow shoulders) vs. the large frame big girl (and as nose guard, number 70 …)

Is there anyone out there who can actually always buy clothing off-the-rack that fits? I am the 5’6″ girl people supposedly gear clothes toward, but nothing ever fits. Regulars are too long in the leg and the waist, petites are too short in the leg and in the waist. Petite blouses fit my short arms but are too short at the hem and rarely large enough in the chest…etc.etc.etc. I’ve started wearing blouses with 3/4 sleeves and skirts almost all the time because they’re the only flattering things I can find!

The under-representation of the short girl manifests in that, in all the legions of size groups represented here, no one wants to hear about the short girl :(

Petite pants (by some cruel twist of fate) are not made short enough for me, and I have awful trouble finding 28″ inseams (in North America) with the proper tush involved. Even more, what awful joke is someone playing by selling 34″ inseam pants to women in Asia*? WHAT?!?!?

*we are typically short with long torsos…

Count me in as another soon-to-be fan.
And to the folks tossing about 165 vs. 265 above: At nearly 6′ tall, when I weighed 165 I was skinny to the point of looking unhealthy. 200-210 (about a size 14-16) is where I look best – nice curves but no bulges. And yet, another woman my same height might look her best at 135. So please, everyone, don’t get sucked into the numbers nonsense. Go for where you look and feel your personal best – not some “magic number” that, in most cases, someone else (the ad industry, etc) has planted in your brain as being synonymous with “attractive.”

We can already see this is a polarized issue. Getting the sense that its an us vs them situation skinny vs fat, 12 vs 22. Sheesh.

We are all people, and we all have our fashion difficulties. And I, working at Banana Republic, am the very LAST to discount the plight of the larger or smaller person, since I work with them every day. I’m 5’6 and just a size 0. At stores that run a bit bigger, I can’t find anything that fits me either, and at most stores, nothing in a size 0 is long enough since I’m mostly leg.

I took a little offense at the “skinny people will eat a burger to fit in our clothes” comment because calling someone skinny (or making anorexic comments) is just as bad as calling someone else fat. *frown* Turns out that some of us can’t put on weight easily, while others can’t take it off.

g-dog’s list and lots of the other comments on here make one thing clear: *everyone* has a dreadful time finding clothes/shoes that fit (and most everyone occasionally wonders if there’s something wrong with him/her!). ;-) That is, even if our precise issues are different (sleeve lengths, shoulder widths, giant feets), we’re really all having the same problem. Among my most fun shopping trips were with a 5′ friend of mine with tiny feet (I’m pushing 6′ and have feet to match… and then some). We’d walk into the shoe stores, look at the 0-2 styles they’d have for each of us — then walk out, laughing, and find something else to entertain ourselves with. As it happens, we ended up owning a lot of the same shoes. Anyway, looking forward to the expansion of the Manolo blogosphere. Hurray for working together to find a variety of styles to fit *all* sorts!

Dearest Manolo my big fat feet (and butt and boobies!) thank you from the bottom of our big fat hearts! Please remember to include things specifically for curvy women, clothing companies seem to think that our waists are the same size of our hips! I can never get a pair of pants to fit!

Also, NO ANIMALS! If I see one more plus sized section that has cows on it (I love cows, but not on my clothes, btw I’m from Nebraska, could you tell?) I am going to SCREAM!

Also, also infusions of color, patterns, and a lot of risque are in high demand. I would love to apply but unfortunately I’m not very qualified and don’t have a lot of experience. I wish you the best in your search though and can’t wait for the final product!

To all the women who have been posting about size issues:

Not only do I hear you, it’s screaming in my ear. I look pretty normal but am oddly disproportionate— for example, a pair of slacks that would fit would be a petite cut at the hips, a tall inseam, and a size difference between the waist and hips. And that’s just the legs. (Shoes are the ONE place where I am utterly standard!)

What I suggest is that every woman who has trouble with things fitting oddly should go to somebody who can do a full measurement for her— not only waist and hips, but inseam, rise, shoulder width, neck length, etc. For example, theater costumers often have a sheet with all of the measurements necessary to fit varying styles of costumes, including fitted and historical. Then find a sizing chart.

That may not help you find clothes, but at least you’ll have some reason WHY things don’t fit. (Me, I’ve got no hope unless I go tailored, which is the reason there’s so many skirts in my closet!)