The Rise of the Curvy Girl

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Curvy girls

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So here's the skinny (sorry) - and I'm so excited about this - curvy girls are finally in vogue! Not in the magazine of that name, you understand, (that would be a little too much to hope for) but there are definitely signs that the tide is turning and women in the UK are finally starting to see images in the media that truly represent what we look like.

Even Victoria Beckham looks like she's started allowing a few carbs past her lips, after months of enduring the gossip magazines highlighting her angular frame and lollipop head as a bad example to the nation's teens. It's ironic that Victoria Beckham's dresses make curvy women look fabulous - witness Carol Vorderman's amazing figure in a Beckham LBD, recently.

One of the first indications of this sea-change occurred last summer, when Leah Green was crowned Miss London, despite being - shock, horror - a size 12. She wasn't the only one. Chloe Marshall from Guildford won the Miss Surrey title. At size 16, this was nothing short of a revolution in beauty pageant terms. More recently, London Fashion Week was rocked by designer Mark Fast's attempt to challenge the entrenched practice of using bony models, by putting size 12 and 14 girls on the runway instead. It cost him two of his creative team, who evidently didn't feel brave enough to let the clothes speak for themselves on realistically proportioned women. And just for the record - the clothes AND the girls looked fabulous.

Curvy Girl's icon, though, has got to be Gok Wan. He, all über-low slung jeans and lop-sided fash haircut, is a living, breathing, mwah-kissing advert for accepting yourself just as you are. Gok clearly does not give a damn what people think about him and it radiates from every pore. Here is someone who has learnt to love himself and then some - and now he's doing it for the girls. Gok should be on prescription - it would save the NHS millions in not having to treat young girls with eating disorders.

Movies and music have their fair share of healthy looking women too - who didn't want to look like Catherine Zeta Jones in Zorro when Antonio Banderas' strategically administered 'Z' left her busting sexily out of her corset? Or what about Scarlett Johannsen, Kate Winslet, Charlotte Church, Pixie Lott? And of course, Beyonce, whose latest fashion statement was to wear an outfit that deliberately doubled the size of her hips.

The fact is, we're larger now than we used to be. Women's shape has changed since the Forties and Fifties - not only are we taller by a good couple of inches but our waists have expanded too. Back in those days, the average woman's waist measured 27.5" (70cm) and she weighed around 9st 10lbs (62kg) - now, the average waist size is 34" (86cm) and we weigh in at a healthy 10st 3.5lbs (65kg).

So what's brought about this turn-around in the media? Partly, it's to do with the advent of celebrities such as Dita Von Teese, who have brought Forties glamour and sophisticated sexiness to the forefront. Dita is no stick-figure, her curves are in all the right places and I defy anyone who says she's not sex on legs. But I also think women have actually just become utterly worn out trying to live up to the barrage of idealised airbrushed images that are constantly pushed at them in magazines and on TV. And at last, the media seems to be cottoning on.
It's disappointing to note, however, that (with the exception of specialist stores like Evans) most high street fashion shops still seem to target a predominate market of size 4-10 teens. Their racks groan with these doll-like outfits, while the few token size-14 counterparts disappear as soon as they hit the shelves. Apart from making normal-sized women feel inadequate because they can't find anything in their size, it shows there is a real need for these shops to do more in the way of market research. Sure, they have some larger sizes, but not in the quantities that reflect the true shape of most women in the UK.

Thankfully, companies such as Marisota (http://www.marisota.co.uk/shop/) , the online fashion chain, have long recognised that there is a need for stylish clothes in practical sizes - their ranges go from 12 to 32. And if you've ever despaired at trying to find a shirt that doesn't gape at the bust, try Cast (http://www.cast-woman.com). They sell beautifully made shirts that actually fit at the bust without billowing out around the waist.

It's not just in fashion either - curvy women want to be catered for in the bedroom too. KinkyBlue (http://www.kinkyblue.co.uk), an online adult toystore, deliberately uses images of realistically proportioned women in their lingerie advertising and has reported an upsurge in sales of hourglass-enhancing corsets, especially in size 14 and upwards. It seems we're starting to come out of our shells and make the most of what we've got, instead of trying to fit an impossible ideal.

And the clincher is, real men love our curves. EVERY man I queried about this said that they had no desire whatsoever to sleep with a bag of bones. They craved the soft voluptuousness of a real-sized woman. What really gets them going is seeing the roundness of the buttocks, the curve of a breast, the contours of the belly, and all the other roundings (I know that's not a word but it says it all) we have.

So, I for one, am going to take great pleasure in ditching those scales, unleashing my curves and revelling in my va-va-voom. And maybe indulging in the odd cake or two....

10 Reasons to Celebrate Your Curves

1. Wrap dresses look best with ample breasts - Jessica Rabbit's got nothing on you.
2. A little bit of cleavage goes a long way when being served in the pub/queue-jumping the club queue/hailing a cab
3. A generously proportioned bum and boobs gives you the sexiest hourglass shape, and enhances your waist.
4. You can rock the forties look like you were Betty Page - those clothes were made for you.
5. You can have that extra doughnut (we said one, mind - we're not advocating total abandonment of common sense!) without feeling guilty
6. Your redundant bathroom scales can find a new role as a door stop.
7. You never have to utter the words "Does my bum look big in this?" EVER again. Because it doesn't matter if it does
8. High heels + curves instantly elevates you to sex-goddess status.
9. Those Agent Provocateur bras were made for YOU, you minx!
10. Because at the end of the day, life is really way too short to be worrying about what people think of you. You're already fabulous - now go show the world you believe that!