February 2020

This might sound very naive of me, but I have never really thought about not being able to shop at certain places because of my size. I didn’t think about inclusive shopping at all. It’s narrow minded, I know. It just was never a thought that crossed my mind, until I met my friend, Alex from Sassy Confetti. But now I get it and see the importance of inclusive shopping and why we need it!

I have friends in all shapes and sizes, but I’ve never been in a situation where I couldn’t really shop with them due to the lack of sizes. Alex and I like to have girl days, shop, go to brunch and hang out. But there have been so many times where we walk into a store and she can only shop for a headband or jewelry. That isn’t really shopping. In fact, think about it. How many stores actually even carry XXL or bigger? There isn’t many.

Alex asked me to join her for a styling session at Universal Standard, I was like sure! The clothes are cute, they have wine and we could hang out. But really it was the first time we could actually shop together and TRY on the same things, just in different sizes. It was more than just a normal day hanging out. It was an experience we hadn’t had together.

Shopping at Universal Standard has sizes from 00-40, but has the same pieces in ALL those sizes. Which doesn’t happen. I loved the fact we could try on the exact thing and see if we liked them. It was fun! I learned that the company was actually started by two friends that couldn’t shop together because one is standard size and one is plus. I love this! They are truly trying to create inclusive shopping for everyone. Plus, not to mention the space is GORGEOUS and they serve wine 🙂 Highly recommend going with a group of friends.

After this day, I really thought about all the stores I normally go to and how they don’t carry sizes for everyone. When thinking about the average women, they are like a size 12 or 14. There are many stores that don’t even carry sizes above a 14! That’s crazy. What if Mila was a 14? or 16? She won’t be able to shop at most places and that’s not okay.

Now I see why inclusive shopping NEEDS to be a thing. Plus size women shouldn’t only be forced to shop online. We all love a good shopping session from time to time, not just sitting at our computer, hiding behind our screens.

So what can we do? I think talking about it, asking store managers if they carry other sizes and spending money at places that carry sizes for everyone is a good start.

I know this post might seem a little random, but I hope this can make some others think more about inclusive shopping. Everyone wants to go shopping right? Thanks for reading!

You can follow along with me here!

Until next time,

Christine