We noted here a month ago that plus size clothing and lingerie have leaped to celebrity designer lines (think Queen Latifah and British singer Beth Ditto). Plus sizes are in demand as comfort clothes, work clothes and, we speculated, part of a consumer trend against skeletal high fashion dictates, and for Rural Outdoor Chic. See Plus-Size Clothing Goes Designer, Celebrity and Comfortable from the Top Ten Wholesale Blog of late January 2009, where you’ll also find links to connect with wholesalers in all plus-size clothing categories.

The above posting prompted Plus Size Clothing Designer to comment:
January 21st, 2009 at 8:02 pm:
Just came across your blog and found it so informative that I could not resist myself from commenting on it. You are really doing a great job. Thanks and keep posting.

As for going Full Monty – that’s British slang for nude, naked, bare naked, unclothed, in one’s birthday suit, sin ropa (Spanish translation) and many other less polite words for shedding the second skin (clothes).

Beth Ditto, power singer in British band “Gossip,” has been designing plus-sized women’s casual and Going Clubbing wear for the UK clothing chain Evans. Ditto’s sex appeal, plus high comfort level with her plus-sized existence, has gained her both music and clothing design fans … including talk show host Rosie O’Donnell and slim Pirate of the Caribbean actress Keira Knightley. That’s old Plus news.

What just hit magazine covers is the latest trend for celebrities of all body shapes to pose on newsstand covers in the buff. Full Monty. In the thread-less photo trend, count supermodels Heidi Klum and Cindy Crawford; actors Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Jamie Pressley, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson. Among other Full Monty models.

Plus-sized rocker Beth Ditto decided to weigh-in on the above trend, appearing Full Monty on the cover of Love magazine this month.

If you carry the hard-to-keep-in-stock apparel category of Plus Sized Clothing, you might be interested in nude cover model Beth Ditto’s thoughts on weight, body image and the fashion machine. She might help you understand your plus-sized customers a little better. Like everything else about Ditto, this is presented from Love’s editorial pages unvarnished, uncensored and verbal full monty.

· “She says the wrong things. She looks the wrong way. Isn’t it confounding and amazing to have an iconic figure who doesn’t have a 25-inch waist?” (Love editor Katie Grand)

· “If there’s anyone to blame for Size Zero, it’s not women.” (Beth Ditto to NME magazine, 2007)

· “Blame gay men who work in the fashion industry who want these women as dolls. Men don’t know what it feels like to be a woman and be expected to look a particular way. The Beckhams are part of the machine; Paris Hilton is part of the machine.” (Beth Ditto, op. cit)

· On weight in rock music: “TV single-handedly ruined good music. Bessie Smith … Aretha Franklin could never be what (they) were, now. It’s the image – everybody looks really cool … amazing. That’s why indie scenes exist; it’s a rebellion against that idea.” (Ditto to Spinner magazine in 2008, which named her one of Spinner’s Top Women Who Rock)