{"id":6728,"date":"2014-05-16T08:40:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T00:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=6728"},"modified":"2021-06-18T15:01:14","modified_gmt":"2021-06-18T07:01:14","slug":"plus-size-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2014\/05\/plus-size-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hong Kong Fatshionistas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Proudly\u00a0pursuing\u00a0fashion to flatter the fuller figure<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reporters:\u00a0Grace Cheung, Sherry\u00a0Tsui, Brian Wong<\/p>\n<p>Editor:\u00a0Natalie\u00a0Tsoi<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/94490963\" height=\"281\" width=\"500\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Hong Kong\u00a0may\u00a0be\u00a0acclaimed as a\u00a0hub\u00a0for international fashion brands.\u00a0But the glamorous\u00a0showcases\u00a0of\u00a0luxury\u00a0boutiques\u00a0and\u00a0coveted\u00a0clothing\u00a0created by top-notch designers\u00a0hide\u00a0an inconvenient truth:\u00a0here,\u00a0fashion\u00a0is\u00a0for the\u00a0thin.<\/p>\n<p>Wearing a white top and\u00a0a pair of\u00a0black\u00a0Gallus\u00a0short trousers,\u00a0Bertha Chan\u00a0exudes style. To put together her fashion-forward looks, Chan\u00a0buys her clothes\u00a0online\u00a0from overseas\u00a0labels\u00a0to\u00a0satisfy\u00a0her taste.\u00a0She does so not because she could not find styles\u00a0she likes locally,\u00a0but\u00a0simply\u00a0because of\u00a0her size.<\/p>\n<p>Chan writes a fashion\u00a0blog\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/apparelprojectplus.blogspot.hk\/\"><i>Curvasian<\/i><\/a>\u00a0to share her findings and comments on new fashion\u00a0designs.\u00a0\u201cBecause I\u2019m Asian, and I\u2019m curvy,\u201d\u00a0she says.<\/p>\n<p>Fashion for the fuller figure is often referred to as\u00a0\u2018plus-size\u00a0fashion\u2019. \u201cPlus-size fashion is to differentiate the sizes\u00a0from\u00a0what we call straight size, which is from US size 0-12,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Chan.\u00a0\u201cEspecially high fashion, they stop at size 12 and they don&#8217;t go up anymore because some fashion designers tend to think that it&#8217;s actually\u00a0ruining their brand image.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Boudoir photographer\u00a0Agnes Chan\u00a0also\u00a0finds it difficult to buy\u00a0larger sized, fashionable clothes.\u00a0She meets\u00a0<i>Varsity<\/i>\u00a0dressed in a\u00a0body-clinging\u00a0leopard print\u00a0dress\u00a0which\u00a0is unavailable through ordinary channels.\u00a0Despite the trouble\u00a0of sourcing clothes to her taste, she refuses to\u00a0adopt the conservative\u00a0approach. \u201cIs it a must for fat people\u00a0to wear loose,\u00a0multi-layered clothes,\u00a0covering the tummy or legs with a jacket even at over 20\u00b0C?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is normal to be slim in Hong Kong, but having more muscles would be abnormal,\u201d she\u00a0adds.<\/p>\n<p>In a town where it seems everyone is aspiring to be thin,\u00a0fashion designers tend to create clothes for slim figures. Local\u00a0designer Esther\u00a0Lui\u00a0says\u00a0this\u00a0is inevitable\u00a0as\u00a0designers tend to choose slimmer models\u00a0for\u00a0what they believe to be a\u00a0better visual\u00a0effect.\u00a0\u201cPeople appear fatter through the lens, no matter how slim you are,\u201d\u00a0says\u00a0Lui,\u00a0\u201cfor designers, they would of course choose a slimmer model so as to balance the resulting visuals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pacino Wan, lecturer of the Department of Fashion and Image Design, Hong Kong Design Institute,\u00a0says\u00a0Asians are more likely to pursue\u00a0slim\u00a0figures, as they are inherently smaller in body size. However,\u00a0he thinks larger-sized people\u00a0should\u00a0also express themselves through fashion.\u00a0\u201cSometimes I hear from stylists\u00a0that\u00a0larger-sized people should avoid wearing bright and floral clothes,\u201d\u00a0Wan says,\u00a0\u201cbut I would encourage them to try out different clothes. If not, how could you wear fashionable clothes?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFashion boosts self-confidence. It also gives you vitality for the whole day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the catwalks, advertisements and spreads in glossy magazines were anything to go by, you would think fashion was solely the preserve of the tall and thin. This mentality is often reflected in the lack of larger sizes on the rails in stores. Varsity meets the fashionistas who proudly proclaim that one size does NOT fit all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,15,1790],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hong-kong-life","category-multimedia","category-multimedia-may-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6728"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6755,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6728\/revisions\/6755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}