Are we hiding the obvious?

I had a conversation with someone today that got me thinking. While he is not our target market at Curvaceous K™, he was kind enough to pass on our survey to friends of his that he thought might be.

He mentioned that one of the women he passed the survey on to made it a point to tell him that some women might find it offensive to be asked if they were a size 14 or up. And that perhaps we should consider opening the survey up to all women.

At first, I wasn't sure what he meant. My response was something to the effect that most people can tell by looking at me that I am a larger size. I don't know that it's a secret to anyone...you can't hide the obvious.

The truth is that our customer is not a size 4 or even a size 10. We want to be exclusive to the curvalicious full-figured gal. We have no issues with anyone who is smaller than a size 12... happiness comes in all sizes afterall. And there are plenty of shops that go up to a size 12.

All we want to do is to get to know the women that we want to serve so we can exceed her expectations. But are we offending her by stating that she's our customer? It put us in quite a pickle today.

How do you know what term is offensive? Is plus-size offensive? Is full-figured offensive? Is curvalicious offensive? The truth of the matter is we don't know how to make everyone happy with one label. It's probably impossible.

In the end we certainly don't want to offend anyone but no one should feel bad about admitting their a size 18 or 20 or 22 or whatever the case might be. And we certainly don't want to stir up controversy. Our goal is to simply open up a fun boutique where our customers will love coming to shop! Fashion is fun.

Our philosophy here is that we believe if a woman looks good then she feels good. That energy radiates into the world around her. And even if that size 24 may not be her ultimate goal why shouldn't she look good for the time that she is that size?

As for me, I'm not going to hide away in my apartment waiting for the day I'm an ideal size 8 or whatever the latest cover girl tells me I should be.

I want to go out. I have a life and I want to look good living it. I feel beautiful in a new dress or outfit. And sometimes that size label may say 14; other times it may say 18 but I always feel GORGEOUS!

We hope all of you ladies out there feel the same way regardless of what size department you shop in.

LOVE YOURSELF TODAY for who you are.

And if you are comfortable with admitting your a size 14 and up please take a few minutes to complete our survey. No identifying details are asked. All we do ask for is some honest input to help make us your store.


K