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"Do you a.) Wear larger than a size 10? b.) Love fashion? c.) Feel completely frustrated by the inability to combine those two facts into one gorgeous piece of trendy clothing? Then you just may be one of &amp;quot;fashion&amp;#x27;s invisible women,&amp;quot; as Los Angeles Times writer Emili Vesilind described in a piece this weekend. Despite the fact that the average American woman is a size 14 and weighs around 163 pounds, the majority of fashion-forward labels and high-end designers don&amp;#x27;t make anything bigger than a size 10. According to the article, most department stores offer around 20 different labels in sizes larger than 14--compared with more than 900 in their regular womenswear departments. When Vesilind contacted a number of retailers to inquire why they aren&amp;#x27;t accommodating plus-size women, her calls were met with silence. &amp;quot;Like fifth-grade girls who secretly live in fear of being ostracized from the cool clique, they don&amp;#x27;t want to be caught talking to the fat girl,&amp;quot; the story says. &amp;quot;Full-figured supermodel Emme sells her own plus-size collection, me by Emme, on QVC, and will be debuting Emme Style, an online clearinghouse for plus-size fashion resources, this year under the same name. Top fashion magazine editors and designers, she said, are guilty of perpetuating the idea that full-figured women and fashion don&amp;#x27;t mix.&amp;quot; Indeed, the story goes on to say that Karl Lagerfeld has implored women who want to wear his clothes to &amp;quot;buy small sizes and less food,&amp;quot; and that Miuccia Prada has announced that she would not sell clothes larger than a size 10. So the options left to plus size women are, ironically, rather slim. Old Navy&amp;#x27;s plus size line is primarily available online, Kohl&amp;#x27;s and Target have a few offerings, and then there are stores like Lane Bryant and Avenue whose clothes, I&amp;#x27;ve heard from both Slaves to Fashion readers and other plus size bloggers, can be dowdy or ill-fitting and very likely to be spotted on another plus size woman at the very same event. * The article goes on to question who the lack of options can be blamed on: &amp;quot; Did the demographic give up on fashion before fashion gave up on the demographic? Or was it the other way around?&amp;quot; In other words, if there were more plus size women out there who wanted to buy fashion forward clothes, wouldn&amp;#x27;t someone be making them? I&amp;#x27;d love to hear what you guys think about this subject. Are you frustrated by the lack of options available to you as a plus size woman? How have you gotten creative in finding great clothes that fit you well? Do you wish the Pradas of the world would make 16s and 18s? Would you wear them? What are your tips and tricks for finding fashionable clothes in larger sizes? Do you feel like &amp;quot;fashion&amp;#x27;s invisible woman&amp;quot; sometimes? Discuss! Photo: WireImage *This post has been corrected--we regret the error"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2009/03/plus-size-and-feeling-like-you>