Word up, readers. A number of you have, in the past few months, written in asking for plus-size shopping recommendations in London. And each time I've lazily replied, with some hilarious comment about how I'll be sure to put up my answers on the site soon, totally look out for them, etc., etc. It took Miss J's fabulous and popular innovation, Ask TFFF, to spur me to action. That, and threats of violence.
Remember, we're weird here in the uck, as no-one pronounces 'UK', so you need to add two sizes to your US size to work out your UK size. E.g. US 16 is a UK 20. All the sizes in this post are UK.
Let's start with Zone 1's shopping hub, around the misery-fest of Oxford Circus and Bond Street tube stations...
High Street
Store: Primark
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Marble Arch or Bond Street
Sizes: Up to 18/20, generous
High-street mecca for everyone because dresses cost £10! Knickers for a pound! Scarves, earrings and bags abound for a fiver! Definition of fast fashion, it's very trendy but very unethical, made by orphans in far distant lands, etc. But their stuff is totally cute, so...every cloud.
Store: Monsoon
Address: Oxford Street/London-wide
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: 8-22.
Think 'Boho Luxe': lots of blouses and dresses, very silk/satin/embellished. They have lovely accessories and jewellery too, very affordable, and a sister shop called Accessorize which is (clue in the name...) accessories only.
Store: Evans
Address: Plaza Centre, Oxford Street/London-wide
Tube: Oxford Circus/Tottenham Court Road
Sizes: 16-32.
Great for knee-high boots with room in the calves. Owned by the same company as Topshop, it used to be terrible but it's getting better, though still quite polyester-focussed.
Store: Dorothy Perkins
Address: Oxford Street
Tube: Oxford Circus/Tottenham Court Road
Sizes: 6-22.
Marginally less cool than Topshop but also less expensive, owned by the same umbrella company. Cute tops and blouses, although it's somewhat mumsy -- think Marks and Spencer for old-before-their-time twenty-somethings. Uh, but you can find nice things if you have a rummage, and it's all in sizes 6-22, rather than a separate plus range. Plus Tall, Petite and Maternity ranges.
Store: New Look
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch
Sizes: Inspire Range, 16-26
The flagship is a walk-up with fabulous gold steps leading into HEAVEN: New Look has the BEST range of shoes on the high-street. That's fact, and not journalistic hyperbole. The clothes are so-so, but I've found some fab H&M-esque numbers there, and obviously OMG GILES DEACON!!! does a range. Walk right past the Lily Allen tat though.
Department Stores/Boutiques
Store: Base
Address: Monmouth Street, Covent Garden
Tube: Leicester Square/Covent Garden
Sizes: 16-28
Specialist plus-size only boutique.
Store: Selfridges
Address: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street
Sizes: up to 26 for selected brands.
Stocks Marina Rinaldi.
Store: Harrods
Address: Knightsbridge
Tube: Knightsbridge
Harrods' Plus Collections department stocks Anna Scholz (up to size 28), Elena Miro (Elena Miro also has a shop on Regent Street), Gianfranco Ferre, and Persona.
Store: Beige
Address: New Cavendish Street
Tube: Bond Street
Sizes: 16-28
Specialist boutique that stocks Elena Miro, Persona, Oui, Hucke, Wille, Elena Grunert, Alain Weiz...
Underwear and Hosiery
Store: Rigby & Peller
Address: Conduit Street (pronounced 'Cund-it', which, whilst not rude, for some reason makes me snort and chuckle)
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: up to 40G
Titty galore! R&P does expensive, but fabulous, lingerie. They have a super-strict measuring service (their mission is to get people into the right bra!), without being Trinny and Susannah-ish about their titty-wrangling, and carry sizes up to 40G. It's fairly expensive but so, so worth it for their stuff, or even just to get measured right as they really know what they're doing.
Store: Marks & Spencer
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Bond Street/Marble Arch
Cheap and basic bras, but a great selection: black/white/beige/nude T-shirt bras; multi-way bras, strapless, bright colours, lacy, sports, underwire-free, shaper, minimiser, maximiser... M&S is boob central, basically.
As in my last post, Marks & Sparkles also do plus-size hosiery, and lots of plus-size items. Most of their clothing is horrifically frumpy, but - and Jeremy Paxman be damned - for bras, knickers, vests, socks, hosiery, and basics, you can't go too far wrong.
Accessories
Store: Topshop Flagship
Flagship: Oxford Street
Tube: Oxford Circus
Sizes: N/A
Philip Green is an evil skeezeball, and Topshop's sizing system verges on sadistic, but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn the ground floor accessories section at their flagship is worth it. Handbags, belts, purses, scarfs, hairpieces, makeup, telephones and household items, earrings, necklaces, concessions and pop-up shops, everything... You'll find shoes in the basement, too.
Store: Liberty
Address: Regent Street/Great Marlborough Street
Tube: Oxford Circus/Piccadilly Circus
Liberty is lovely. It's like Tiffany's. It can do no wrong. Be soothed by designer handbags, inordinately expensive perfume and lovely, lovely things on the ground floor, before tripping up the fabulous staircase to the shoe section... Plus you can have Champagne & oysters there...yum.
Vintage and Ethical
From Liberty, stroll through Carnaby Street (ignore American Apparel and check out shoes in Office and bath things in Lush) to Soho, which has a bajillion adorable little streets where porn shops/sex cinemas sit cheek-by-jowl with little boutiques/vintage shops. Do try not to mix the two up.
West London: Rellik (vintage), and From Somewhere (ethical).
Soho and East London: Beyond Retro (vintage), and Junky Styling (ethical).
Victoria: Cornucopia (vintage).
South: Radio Days (vintage).
Apparently London has all this other shit, like Buckingham Palace, the Queen, Royal Parks, the Tower, Dungeons, museums, galleries, theatres, and shit. But who cares, right?
Readers' Recommendations
Don't forget to check out the comments to this post, which is full of personal recommendations from fashionable Brits: including suggestions for larger-sized shoes, a couple of mentions for excellent lingerie company Bravissimo, which I shamefully forgot to include, and other tried-and-tested outlets.
15 comments:
Thanks for this. I was in London last fall and was a bit unimpressed with the general plus-size options (though the plus-size section in Harrods made me wish I had a lot more $$). But then, I live near San Francisco so perhaps I'm spoiled.
Great post!
You forgot about Bravissimo though for the big boobed of us. They carry up to a 38K...I think. And they have lots of cute bras for really not that expensive. Without them, this would be one pretty sad (and saggy) 36H girl. :)
Hight street retailer Wallis has a new collection for sizes 16-24 called Curves (fresh out of groovy names, huh?)...it's not currently appearing on their website but here is pictorial evidence:
http://www.hughesmodels12plus.co.uk/images/models/Kate/Kate45_Main.jpg
Don't know whether it fits the topic but a guide to finding shoes over a size 8 in London would be HEAVEN!!
p.s. your link for Rigby & Peller needs a tweak..
You are right that evans is getting better, but the bigger stores also do a range called 'Seven' which is specifically more youth focused and does great jeans. :))
Here are some further London recommendations from a size 22 perspective.
Oxford Street has the flagship branch of Ann Harvey, which seems to have got its act together at long last though it's not quite as fashion forward as Evans strives to be. You will probably take the same size there as you do in the US as their cut is extremely generous. I usually take an Ann Harvey 18 or 20, depending on the garment.
Debenhams has its own small plus-sized line called Gorgeous; it also stocks a large diffusion range by John Rocha which caters up to size 22; J.Taylor, which also goes up to size 22; and a sizable Elvi concession. Elvi are a dedicated plus size chain recently bought out by The White Company. Like Evans there's a high polyester factor, but their designs are a lot hipper than they used to be.
House Of Fraser stocks Chesca, a plus-size line which specialises in mostly formal clothes in beautiful fabrics. John Lewis's Plus Size department is also worth a gander as it carries several upmarket European brands. Both John Lewis and House Of Fraser carry Windsmoor and Alexon clothing which, despite having something of a middle aged identity, can sometimes throw out the odd gem. Windsmoor caters up to size 24 and cuts very genererously; Alexon goes up to size 20 and has a groovier line called Alex & Co, also available up to size 20.
I cannot believe Harriet left out Bravissimo from the underwear recs! IMO Rigby and Peller is highly over rated but Bravissimo stocks the Rigby and Peller brand in addition to Fantasie, Freya, Triumph, Ballet, Kalyani, Young Idea and other purveyors of bras for the fuller figured vixen – all in a range of droolworthy colours and styles. Regrettably those with a band size over 40 are unlikely to luck out – but they do go up to a J cup and they have several stores across London. Their fitters are great and they will knock themselves out getting your bra needs sorted. The downside is that the manufacturers who supply them don't make plus-sized knickers, so be prepared to do some sleuthing in Marks and Spencers afterwards if your arse is bigger than a UK 16/18.
Lastly, (just because I'm a huge fan), be prepared to be dazzled by the fab jewellery on offer in Les Néréides in Long Acre, just a 30 second stroll from Covent Garden tube station. It's not cheap but it's very very yummy.
What a great post...thanks for this
While I am not plus-sized (I'm an in-between size), I do think this is a really rad site, and I also love that you embrace size in a cute manner that doesn't put down anyone of any size. Fun site! Keep up the good work.
To follow-up on Downtown Venus’s comment, large shoes are a nightmare. I take a UK size 9.5/10 and so only shop in speciality shops. Also, it’s worth noting that although I’m fat, I have rather narrow feet, which just makes the problem worse. I think for size 8 you might find some non-speciality shops carry your size – I think Next for instance.
But for larger sizes, you go to Chiltern Street, W1 (between Oxford Street and Baker Street). The best of the shops by far is Totally at number 39. The shoes are fabulous and the assistant (I’ve only ever seen the one guy) is lovely. Next best is House of Sole (formerly Elephant Feet) at number 8. Cheaper shoes are available at Magnus at number 44, but these are all wide-fitting, and fairly ugly. Crispins at number 28 has been around forever. The shoes are ugly and expensive: if you like Stuart Weitzman shoes, try them on there, and buy them much more cheaply online. The clothes shop Long Tall Sally (for tall women), at number 21, also has some shoes, but they tend to be ugly. If you go to Chiltern Street on a Saturday, you’ll find you keep meeting the same women as you all go from shop to shop.
There are two other places to try. Evans (see main article) sells shoes up to size 10. They are very wide-fitting, and, rather like the clothes, tend to be almost-but-not-quite attractive, but you might get lucky. Barratts (there’s a branch on Oxford Street by Oxford Circus) has a Tall & Small section. The range is cheap but very limited.
I refuse to believe that those are the sole (forgive the pun!) options for larger shoes in London! The stores are all truly dreadful, to the point I was so excited to the see the Georgina Goodman range in Evans that I bought almost every style in a rabid frenzy, even though they didn't quite fit properly.
I'm happy to remind everyone of a few other options they might have forgotten about: Duo over on Saville Row, and TopShop, whose range of 42/9s is rather limited yet for the young at heart, still definitely worth a try!
But really - why can't there be the same proliferation of size 11/42/UK9s as there are in the US department stores?
*sorry for the hijack*
I'd love to see a similar post about New York. I've been here 7 months and have yet to find many really fantastic plus stores. There's Lee Lee's Valise in Brooklyn, but that's about it.
Duo boots, duo boots, duo boots. Best, best, best!!! Also, I've found lots of dresses in Camden vintage shops that fit me at a UK 18.
I have just come back from London and as a US size 14 I have to say that I did not have to go to a size 20 at all - mostly 16s in the high street, including River Island which is cut without much room for TnA. Of all the places I have shopped in the world (and that's plenty) the UK has the worst sizing standards I've come across. You really do have to look a piece over and then take 2 sizes with you to the change room and see which fits. Probably why there is no definitive size conversion chart for that part of the world - once you get past a size 8 all bets are off!
why didn't i know you people before i went to london! oh, i know, i would have spent money i didn't have. but i'll surely save up for a return trip. i did see that london has amazing sizes in both harrods and primarks...even next!
chesca does not only have formal clothes, I am a size 20 and wear their ribbed cardis at weekends, and their linen jackets are great for holidays. did you know you can buy chesca on line to save going into town. I find their fit great
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