Get real, girl!

Serena Williams	“I’m very glad I’m a normal-sized person and I shall continue to be a normal-sized person, enjoying my food” Kate Winslet	“The best thing about being a woman is having those curves. No curves, no woman” Salma Hayek
“The best thing I can say to young ladies is accept the body you’re in. If you have curves, love your curves. The thing to strive for is to have the best healthy body you can have” Beyonce Knowles	“We all obsess over looking like the perfect Barbie type and that’s not always what’s beautiful. It’s about making peace with yourself. All I have to say is: Jessica Simpson is the most beautiful woman on the planet” Jessica Simpson	“My body is so important to me.... Today, if women look or feel voluptuous they feel guilty, but beauty has no law and there is no way to be beautiful” Monica Bellucci
“I have a butt, I have boobs and I have a woman’s curves. There is no way I’d see them go to zero” Jennifer Lopez	“I would take my clothes off in front of the mirror and be like, ‘Oh, I look like a woman’. And I felt beautiful and I never tried to lose it because I loved it” Christina Hendricks	“I’ve seen gyms only from the outside. I feel very comfortable with my body” Scarlett Johansson

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan	“I personally like a bit more meat on myself. I am all for the voluptuous look” Sameera Reddy
“I don’t agree with the concept of being stick thin. At the end of the day, Indian men want women who are well-rounded, voluptuous and curvaceous, someone they can hold” Sonakshi Sinha	“I love the woman’s body. I love the curves we are blessed with. That’s what makes us women” Vidya Balan
“I love the way I look. As a woman, it’s important to be comfortable with your body — size zero or size 16” Sushmita Sen	“A woman should look like a woman. If you have curves, celebrate and don’t crib” Mahie Gill
Kajol	“I like everything about myself. I wouldn’t like to change that for the world” Ayesha Takia Azmi

Calcutta’s two real women designers — Sabyasachi Mukherjee & Kallol Datta say it as they feel it

‘Real men love real women’

Sabyasachi Mukherjee

At the outset, let me just say one thing — real men (his size doesn’t matter) likes real women.

I have seen that super fit women can only be idols for other women and men who are still struggling to attain manhood, but talk to any other man — a man’s man — and he will tell you that he likes real women, with their curves, smiles, laughter et al.

The imagery of the perfect woman is alarmingly bordering on pre-puberty boys. Women of UK size 14 are socially pressurised to feel fat. And who decides who’s thin and who’s fat? If you accept your body weight and refuse to believe you are fat, in the eyes of the beholder you will automatically start to look fit without using the gym. Most often than not I have seen that women who are happy with their curves are a lot more emotionally stable than women who are killing themselves to burn that extra ounce of fat in their bodies.

With stability comes customer loyalty as well. And if fashion just realised the importance of making people feel good about shapes and curves (albeit towards a larger size), the industry wouldn’t have been hit by recession. Proof? The proof lies in the pudding. Look at any fashion magazine, the most successful covers have always been their shape issues!

On a personal front, it is quite easy for me to make hip and ‘fashionable’ clothing for a selected few, but the select few cannot make a business. I do not want to live in an egotistical bubble. So for me it is more challenging to dress real women and large women, and when I make them marginally more beautiful I sleep well with the thought that it was a job well done.

For that I might be marginalised by fashion magazines, but I can boast proudly that my circulation is more than theirs!

Do you agree with Sabyasachi that real men love real women with their curves? Tell t2@abp.in

‘My sample sizes are a Uk 12’

Kallol Datta

As a clothes maker, gravitating towards a fuller dress form seems natural. Ever since Kallol Datta 1955’s inception, my sample sizes have always been a UK size 12. I have colleagues in the industry who are a tad zealous; their sample sizes are usually a size 6. Is it a case of ‘to each his own’? Or is it how we view fashion as a construct?

I am a great believer in the fact that irrespective of your size, if you possess a certain je ne sais quoi, you can carry off any garment. We’ve spoken of how beauty and fashion magazines should work more towards raising women’s self-esteem and this has given rise to more ‘shape issues’ in the fashion print segment. Especially in the Indian context, where body proportions and shapes differ from their European counterparts, it is important that ideal references are presented on runways, store windows and advertorial campaigns.

I like it when my garments are worn by ‘real’ women, plus-sized women. More so because they never find anything to wear on a day-to-day basis from the high-end stores around. My friends are grateful for my sizes and silhouettes. After every show my models exclaim how ‘comfortable’ my clothes are to wear and in turn I feel glad that I am able to work every day towards establishing my proportions in the world of design.

buy buy

You needn’t be size zero to work the latest on the racks. t2 goes shopping to pick some fab finds for the real woman with the real body

Pictures by Anindya Shankar Ray

1. Mango camel dress with skinny belt, Rs 5,790 from forum courtyard

2. Arrow pencil skirt, Rs 1,399 from Shoppers Stop

3. Anokhi batwing tops, Rs 1,850 for the mirror detail and Rs 1,250 for prinT from forum

4. Austin reed striped tee, Rs 899 from Shoppers Stop

5. Promod pleated pants, Rs 3,250 from forum courtyard

6. Promod floral printed tunic, Rs 2,950

7. Mango coral dress, Rs 4,690

8. Anokhi emerald green dhoti silk pants, Rs 1,800