Walk down any high street in the UK and you wouldn't actually believe that there IS an obesity problem in this country. The number of shops actually catering for larger sizes in ANY meaningful way at all is miniscule. Certainly SOME chain stores have SOME items up to Size 24 but certainly not their whole range - well it's NOT ENOUGH. Usually these items are also the dullest items in the store - WE WANT EVERYTHING YOU SELL IN OUR SIZE!

In a country where 1 in 4 adults are reported as being overweight/obese/morbidly obese, the clothing manufacturers STILL ignore this section of the market or tend to treat it as if everyone who is overweight should be punished by only providing only a few styles and then at a vastly increased cost. Many of the ones who do produce larger sizes obviously have NO CONCEPT of how the larger body affects the style. You cannot simply increase the size of everything on a garment and hope that it will fit the larger person - we come with a whole lot of different size ratios to the smaller person - for instance, waists tend to be larger as do sizes around the arms.

I am sick of going into high street clothing stores and asking for clothes in size 26-28 and being told 'Sorry, there is no demand for them!' - YES THERE IS - I AM THERE, DEMANDING IT.

The ONLY places that I can buy clothes that have a halfway decent price-range and the kind of styles I like to wear are J. D. Williams - the catalogue firm in Manchester and the Indigo Moon range from the t.v. seller QVC. Evans, once the champion of the high street for larger sized clothes are now far too expensive for me and their colour palette is so depressing that I find myself desperately searching for something colourful, embroidered or extrovert in their shops, usually without success. If I DO find something it is usually WAY out of my price range. Please NOTE EVANS - not EVERY outsize woman wants to hide away in plain black clothes!

Do these firms EVER consult the ordinary woman-in-the-street and ask them what they WANT to wear? For instance - who in their right MIND thinks that bras with underwires are comfortable for overweight people? They AREN'T. They stick into rounded flesh like a thorn in the side. Who invented these over-long skirts that are impossible to walk up steps in without tripping over the hem? They look APPALLING on the shorter, larger lady. Who told designers that slim-line skirts look good on larger people? They may look good standing up - but as soon as we sit down, they show every roll of flesh. Cross over tops slide around larger busts in a most unattractive way, dresses or tops with buttons gape as soon as we sit down, these up to the minute little cap sleeves look ridiculous... and I've lost count of the sleeves that have threatened to cut off my circulation because the manufacturer simply hasn't catered for the fact that large people have proportionally much larger measurements around the arms!

I am NOT the shy, retiring type! I don't want to dress in dark blue or black - even in the swimming pool! I want reds and oranges and pinks. I want florals and embroidery and beading. I don't want what the skinny ribs wear or what is in fashion on the catwalks necessarily - but I do want to be COMFY. Stop telling me that I shouldn't want to be seen DEAD in a smock top or a flowing kaftan. I KNOW what I want to wear and I'm not going to be bullied by the likes of t.v.'s Trinny and Suzanna into wanting 'fashionable' clothes that are as dull as ditchwater. Indigo Moon can produce large sized t-shirts in my size, with flare and pizzazz - why can't our high street stores? We have an obesity epidemic in younger people but where are the stores catering for THEIR sizes? I certainly haven't seen any! Their chances of wearing the 'designer' stuff that is almost obligatory for their age group is zero, because even people like Nike and Adidas simply don't MAKE it.

Even when a company DOES produce the goods, I am sick of magazines and t.v. programmes showing clothes and telling me that a dress is 'ONLY £65'. That is over two weeks pension for me and therefor OUT. There really is NO reason why the budget high-street stores can't sell us larger sized clothes without hiking the price through the roof at the same time. The problem is that right now, there isn't enough competition so the ones that DO provide a wide size-range know they have us over a barrel and can charge us what they like - so they DO. Thank goodness for Ebay - I admit that these days I tend to buy most of my stuff there now - because it's the only place I can get clothing at a halfway reasonable price!

When ARE we going to see REAL, larger-sized woman on the catwalks and designers who are prepared to cater for US so that the high street stores will follow suit?

If there is any firm out there who wants to talk to people in my position about what we REALLY want, I would be only too glad to oblige. I have tried writing to firms - who send polite messages thanking me for my feedback but then do NOTHING.

Anyone out there want an opinion from a BUYER for a change?