Who says you need to be slim to be stylish?

Ahead of the curve

Who says you need to be slim to be stylish? speaks to fashion bloggers who guide their curvy followers on how to dress right

When Gia Kashyap started her blog Giasaysthat (giasaysthat.com) in 2010, she knew she wasn’t the conventional slim and svelte fashion blogger. But that didn’t bother her. And just as well. Her blog posts dishing out advice like ‘dressing for your shape’ and other style tips for curvy women got instant and positive feedback from readers. Today, her Facebook page has over 5,000 members. “Many girls are round, which to me is subjective. Women all across the world are embracing curves. So why not here?” says Kashyap. slim conditioning “One of the biggest problems with curvy girls is that they often like to dress like skinny ones,” says 23-year-old Komal Khulbe who writes at delhifashionblogger.com. It doesn’t help that fashion tips for curvy women are always about findings clothes that will ‘slim you down’, ‘conceal your problem areas’, ‘flatter your figure’ or, in other words, make you feel wretched about not being slim enough. But curvy women worldwide clearly have had enough of that and the spurt in international fashion blogs by plus-sized women is proof enough. Fatshion on Tumblr is one instance of many such communities where large women post pictures of themselves dressed in their fashionable best. “We’ve been conditioned since childhood to feel conscious. The moment a woman realises that her body is hers and accepts it confidently, styling becomes easier,” says Khulbe who loves to wear skirts that fall just below her knees as they accentuate her legs. Fashion-Bombay, one of India’s earliest style blogs, was started by friends Sonu Bohra and Jasleen Kaur Gupta in September 2009. Their aim was to cater to ‘real’ women, i.e. women who are not waif thin. On Fashion-Bombay, the duo give tips about everyday clothing for such women. “Jasleen and I were amazed at how everyone said curvy was out of fashion,” says Bohra. “We ourselves aren’t model sizes and aren’t apologetic about it. We enjoy having curvaceous bodies, and we celebrate it on the blog.” busting myths When ‘real’ women are so confident about themselves and their bodies on the blog, real women relate to it very well. “We’re like everyone else. We have our own body image issues. So when we project our true selves out there, there’s an instant relatability factor,” says Khulbe. Part of their popularity is the fact that these bloggers are brutally honest with outfits and photographs that they upload, unlike magazines that extensively photoshop photographs. “For our blog, we shoot on the roads and feature a mix of branded and street clothes,” says Khulbe. The bloggers bust myths about style for curvy women. “It’s always said that large people shouldn’t wear stripes since it doesn’t flatter their figure. When I see a striped top, I look at the cut, the shape and then buy it,” says Kashyap. On her blog, she also busts the myth that layering clothes makes people look bulky by effortlessly pairing a pair of drawstring pants with a top and blazer. The idea is to make the whole look structured, she says. While leather pants are often considered skinny-girl domain, Kashyap pairs hers with long shirts. TENT FASHION Any large Indian woman who has looked at brands catering to plus-size women will agree that these brands seem to believe that large people have no desire to be stylish. Only that can explain the tent-like shapeless silhouettes that most of these plus-size brands market. Bohra admits not many brands cater to large people but says one can always check out the streets. “The Indian market doesn’t cater to girls who go beyond XL. So if you’re like Adele, you’re in trouble,” says Kashyap. She advises her followers to scan places like Colaba Causeway and Fashion Street in Mumbai for stylish clothes. In Delhi, Khulbe recommends Sarojini Nagar as a good place for stylish clothes. “You get everything there and the best part is that size is never a restriction. I’ve actually done a trend analysis and the hippest stuff is here before it hits the stores,” she says. Bohra is happy that the blogging world she is part of is driving a positive change as far as acceptance and self-confidence of one’s body goes. “It’s all about taking power back into your hands, and fashion does that beautifully,” agrees Khulbe.