Fortune rewards the brave (hopefully)
Finally the patience of many a long-suffering Australian fashionista has been rewarded. Svelte dress designer Leona Edmiston is being heralded as the new champion of voluptuous women everywhere after becoming one of the first high-profile Australian brands to extend her size range beyond the traditional 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 favoured by the majority of the fashion design fraternity.
Having admitted to "occasionally" releasing up to a size 16 in previous collections, Edmiston's new autumn/winter 2008 collection will take the unprecedented move of starting at a size eight, going up to a 24 and covering everything in between.
While this is music to the ears of every woman who has cried in frustration at designers not catering to anyone they perceive as falling outside the realm of 'normality', the news comes with a disclaimer. The 'plus sizes' will only be available via Edmiston's new online boutique launching later this month.
The great news about Edmiston's brave move has spread like wild fire among the online community with a piece by fashion commentator and Fully Chic blogger Patty Huntington attracting in excess of 110 comments in the days following its posting.
In fact it was on this very same blog that Edmiston's business partner Jeremy Ducker admitted that when the label has stocked a size 16 in the past they had always sold "very, very quickly". The decision to stock the new collection's larger sizes exclusively online, he said, had come about because the Edmiston team had noticed a reticence for some larger women to actually want to be in "involved in the boutique experience". A comment that was to be repeated numerous times by readers reacting to Huntington's blog.
While some used the forum to debate health issues, others gave more considered responses. The following was typical of the comments the column attracted: "When I was young and thin, I was also poor. Now I'm older and bigger, I have the money to buy nice clothes, but can't find them. I gave up a long time ago, and just live in jeans or trousers, with a nice shirt if I can find one. It's always puzzled me that designers are happy to lose a huge market by restricting their clothes to small sizes. Go Leona! I hope you have success and that other designers also wake up."
Without wishing to undermine the efforts Edmiston is making in seeking to redress the imbalance in regards to size availability, my concern lies in the fact the larger sizes will only be available online.
As someone who boarders on a size 14/16 myself, I am only too aware of the concerns some larger women have regarding purchasing clothes over the web.
Having been conditioned to expect to feel severely demoralised owing to clothes on racks being ill fitting, not available in appropriate sizes or even worse condescending sales staff, my fear is many voluptuous women will not have the confidence to pay money for something they cannot first try on.
Not knowing Edmiston personally any attempt at suggesting her motivation for extending her sizing so dramatically would be only a guess at best. However she is first and foremost a business woman, and a very successful one at that.
My fear is that if the online sales do not compute, then Edmiston could turn her back on the larger sizes category and return to making the garments in sizes she knows she can get a healthy return from. And us larger girls will once again be relegated to the scrap heap.
By Tracey Porter