VILNIUS - A Lithuanian MP has taken up the fight for full-figured women, demanding that stores stock XXL size clothing for the ample-bodied. Social Democrats MP Birute Vesaite said shops sold garments that would only fit models and anorexic women. Vesaite asked the question "Where is XXL?" in an open letter to the country's Ministry of Health, the Lithuanian Association of Tradesmen and the Lithuanian Apparel and Textile Industry Association.
She said she took the action after receiving letters from Lithuanian women concerned about the lack of clothing available in their size. "Indeed, Lithuanian clothing stores are bursting with garments for teenagers or very lean and petite women. A female of normal build or excess weight often feel miserable because they cannot fit into the largest size of a skirt or a jacket in a fashionable store," said Vesaite. "Clothing has to be larger to correspond to the measurements of women's bodies," she added.
Vesaite said Lithuania should follow the example of the Spanish health minister, who demanded that clothing sizes be adjusted to more realistically reflect the size of the average woman.
"The Lithuanian Ministry of Health should also attend to the problem to break stereotypes and change the prevailing opinion that only 'tiny,' 'tight' and 'miniature' can be beautiful, sexy and elegant in order to achieve much more than treat eating disorders or psychological diffidence," reads the letter.
