It’s my photoshoot today! I’m driving to Manchester later this afternoon to have my extremely exciting and completely terrifying starry night experience. My white velvet leotard is ready, I’ve got a chiffon overskirt and fishnet tights, and I believe the studio has a headdress I’m intending to borrow for a few shots.
In preparation I also ordered a custom bodysuit from a maker listed on a page which was talking about the rarity of inclusive sizing in pole and the businesses from which you can get things made to measure. I’m not ready to name and shame them yet, but the disappointment felt when it arrived and did not fit was intense. People on instagram were really lovely and helped me through it but I hated the experience. It really put a dampener on what should have been a really happy delivery. The outfit itself is beautiful and I’d have loved to have worn it.
Given the whole cost of living crisis, having spent money on an outfit was an indulgence. My size was not the largest on their chart and I felt comfortable I would be able to just buy something off the peg like everyone else can. Once again I was shown this is not the case. I can’t just buy things. I’m not in the same boat as the straight sized people. Another one of those lessons I seem to learn and forget repeatedly.
I’ll be honest, it did cause a bit of a spiral. I re-downloaded all the apps I used when I was sick to track calories and movement and had a 24 hour period of being really hurt and blaming myself. Then I got over it, thankfully.
It’s on them to learn to sew for more bodies if they want to sell themselves as inclusive. It’s on them to test their patterns on the sizes they say the can make. I’ve offered thorough feedback which they may or may not take into account. I’m happy to talk about it further with them, because as I sewist I do know what the problem is (it’s a complete lack of vertical height to allow for any breast and stomach space) and that a lot of pattern companies fail to tackle that properly. It’s not unusual for that to be a problem. I expected different from a professional business in the costume making field, but disappointment is not new. If they’ve not had many (or any) clients of my size, they may never have realised it’s different. They have an opportunity to learn if they want to and if they don’t, I can go back to the owner of the inclusive-sizing list and report that maybe this brand aren’t doing it super well.
I’m really grateful for the support I received. And I remain hopeful that I’m going to love at least a few of the photos later today.
