Smart clothes in supersizes

FASHION: Previously, overweight women had to hide behind loose, shapeless clothes. The more anonymous the better. But today smart clothes for large women have also started appearing. Clothes in bang-on colours, that accentuate more than hide

Overweight – amply proportioned – big and bouncy. There are as many names as there are perspectives on the large-scale female form. Two Danish women, Annette Andersen and Anne Mygind Hjorth, have their own particular viewpoint. To them it is not about diets, but about showing large women in all their magnificence. They are designing clothes which do not hide, but accentuate.

“We do not take a position on the obesity problems of the world,” says Annette Andersen. “We leave that to doctors, obesity researchers and psychologists. We relate to the fact that there are increasing numbers of women who can’t squeeze themselves into a size 38 or less, and have no other option but to walk around in shapeless clothes which only serve to hide their figures.”

X|plor, the two women have taken an important step in addressing the issue. From previously only designing profile clothes for companies and organisations, their supersize clothes, as they call them, are becoming an equally important part of their company.

“It is an amazing market Smart clothes in supersizes which nobody has really done much about,” they say. “We started two years ago with a few things, and today we are already producing four collections a year with 30 different garments per collection. All of it in sizes from 38– 60. And that means really large women.” 

At a time when the cultural mood favours the slim and the sporty, the large and rotund have had to hide themselves in boring, shapeless clothes. But that has changed in the last couple of years.

“Today women are a lot more daring,” say Anne and Annette. “Not only regarding the choice of colours – which really needs to be bang-on – but also the design. A large bosom is accentuated. Round hips and a large bottom are no longer hidden behind fabric curtains. That said, the fashion itself is lagging behind, because even though large women are daring to show their shapes in fashionable clothes, they don’t necessarily do it at the same time as their thinner counterparts. You could say that supersize fashion is constantly behind.”

http://www.xplor.dk

Jacket with built-in protection

Although supersize clothes for women represent a growing share of X|plor’s production, it is still the design of profile clothes that puts bread on the table for the two owners, Annette Andersen and Anne Mygind Hjorth. Among their greatest successes is a patented jacket for security guards and doormen. The jacket has been designed to contain for example an undervest made of a quality which is stab-resistant.