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By MARY JANE SOLOMON
Arcom Newspapers Writer
A young woman, engaged to be married, scans the pages of a new bridal magazine, searching for the dress of her dreams. Suddenly, she sees it: a top-ot-the-wedding-cake gown with a bodice drenched in Alencon lace and seed pearls, a skirt dripping with tiers of ruffles.
If the bride-to-be is a perfect size 8, taller than 5 feet 5 inches, the dress may indeed be the ideal look tor her special day. But it she happens to be a 4-foot-d-mch, size 3, °r a robust size 22, she probably needs to reconsider her choice of styles.
“Today’s companies, thank goodness, have come to realize that there are hard-ro-tit brides," savs Helen Here, owner ot the Southern Belle bridal shop in Leesburg. "Years ago, vou could hardly get a dress that was larger than a size 20."
Now. brides-to-be tinJ some selection in halt-sizes ansi larger, sometimes in styles specially designed to flatter heavier figures Some dresses n. yy some in 'ires as large as 44. Here says, where a few years ago. her 'seamstresses had to design goyv: ' ; r the dittieulr-to-tit i ides
The full figure “is definitely having .i focus in file industry. -ays k. kirby \X ecd. own.ei of l.e Reve bridal shop in Leesburg T hat trend extends to the fashion industry .s a whole, and s, tne companies are gearing their entire lines ro tul I-figured ■aomen, 'he says.
Likewise, sinne manutaeturer' are creating gowns specif: ically tor petite brides.
Frequently, though, women picture themselves in file sty le' draped on perfect bodies in magazine advertisements.
"Some ot the dresses vou see in these magazines are so w ild, and they 're never, ever made tor any bride," Weed savs as she Icats through a bridal magazine. “The picture vou see is the only gown ever produced."
“It their hearts are set on a dress they see on one of these model figures, you have to help them see where that style would not flatter them,” Hyre says. A 4-tix>t-l 1-inch woman will look 3 feet tall in tiers ot ruffles, she advises.
But Hyre suggests that hard-to-fit women try on their dream styles, no matter how inappropriate they may look.
“When she sees herself in it, she doesn’t want it,” she says.
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