First thing, this is a blast from the past. But the matter is so serious I have to relive it and get my other curvy sisters to feel my pain. So, this is what happened some years ago when I was still working in Lagos:
Getting to the office that day was like a demo version of hell. Thanks to the fuel scarcity, I, like the majority of Lagosians without oil blocks in Port Harcourt, had to drive without air conditioning. The daily Ajah-Lekki traffic collaborated with the fiery Lagos sun to make sure I did away with the remainder of my Cinderella fantasies. There was definitely nothing royal about the cocktail of BM Pro foundation and MAC highlights that had formed on my face thanks to my profuse sweating from every pore. Whoever said morning sun was good for giving Vitamin D obviously hasn’t been to Lagos!
Anyway, I got to work after 3 hours in the hellish traffic and tried to settle down under the office air conditioner. Finally! I felt like more like a human being. Work wasn’t bad today, you know, the same old same old. Even though all I could really think about was the totally amazing dress I ordered online yesterday which kept me pretty excited through all the boring paper-pushing and clients’-ass-kissing of the day.
At about 6PM, the delivery man finally arrived with my purchase! Perv that he was, I watched his eyes move from scanning my face, to my bosom [ugh, who says bosom], to my hips and I really didn’t mind, maybe because I couldn’t wait to try on my dress. My tolerance of his wandering eyes was very short-lived though, I slammed the door on him after I saw his eyes wander back up to my belly and wince. To make matters worse, my dream dress turned out to be the stuff of fashion nightmares! It did not fit my hips and backside but fit my upper region perfectly. Shuuuo!? I’m a size 10 and the dress was a size 10 so I couldn’t quite understand why it wouldn’t fit!
My thick African Cinderella dreams couldn’t get any more squashed – like, what’s a princess without her dream dress? With much frustration, I’m here penning my thoughts and wondering why designers don’t take us curvy girls into consideration and produce a dress with 2 varying sizes for our special body type.
