beauty

'Are people who are size 14 freaks?' Bianca Dye's rude shock at a major national retail chain.

It’s slim pickings in the fashion stakes for women larger than a size 12, which Queensland radio personality Bianca Dye was cruelly reminded of when she tried to buy some jeans recently.

The co-host of 97.3FM’s Bianca, Terry and Bob was grappling with a too-small pair of pants in the change room of her favourite Brisbane store when a staff member told her they didn’t come in her size.

The 43-year-old – whose normal attire is skinny is jeans and Converse sneakers –  wrote about the ‘gob-smacking’ experience in her column for The Sunday Mail this week.

She also had a chat about it with her listeners on air this morning.

“I got quite the rude shock in discovering that one of our major retailers doesn’t want bodies like mine buying its clothes,” Dye wrote in the piece.

Bianca Dye has called out a shop for not stocking her size. Source: Facebook

"I’m in the change room doing the really sexy thing where you are literally trying to tuck your flabby bits into the fabric and pull the damn things over that one tricky bit of thigh (you know the one) when the young (did I mention tiny) sales chicky swings open the door revealing me in an awkward stand-off with the jeans."

The sales girl - whom Dye described as "Bambi in hot pants" - suggested she try a size 14, only to inform her shortly afterwards the shop (which apparently has a "cult following") only stocks up to a 12.

The brand makes up to a 16.

"Why? Because people who are size 14 are freaks? I was gobsmacked. I am not a large girl and if they are not stocking what fits me then they are really only housing fashion that fits the slim. I have a pretty good idea what that would be doing for the self esteem of thousands of young women who don’t have the benefit of enough years on this crazy planet to work out that it is, in fact, the store that’s in the wrong and they are not too ugly/fat to be shopping there," Dye wrote in The Sunday Mail.

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A major aussie chain store refuses to stock size 14 jeans!!! Well this one caused a bit of a stir! (how unlike me to throw a cat amongst the pigeons?! ????) i'm not everyone's cup of tea with my outspokenness but I praise the Lord every day that I'm not beige... I think a lot of women will resonate with what I have written because as someone that used to be a size 10 and could shop anywhere things have changed for me and I think a lot of women feel the same way... ???? love to know your thoughts? link in bio above! & NO I refuse to name the chain store because I will open up a can of worms and right now I don't need the grief!! #bitbusy #brekkyradio #973fm #biancaterrybob #truthbomb #loveyourself #couriermail #sundaymail #gettingolderisfriggenconfronting

A photo posted by Radio TV Author Speaker Lover (@biancadye) on

While Dye has learned to love her curves over the years, she is worried about the message that large chain stores are sending to normal, healthy young women by refusing to acknowledge their existence.

"Young, impressionable and insecure minds who love this shop and want to wear their clothes can’t because they are not catered for here. Is this really where it’s at now?" she asked.

"As if all the filters we can use on social media making us all look slimmer and younger and clouding what we really look like are not enough to mess with our young kids’ ideas of self acceptance, we now have major chains dictating who is too chubby to shop in their stores."

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Dye wrote that if she'd grown up under the social media stress of today, she would have been a "basket case":

"Do we need our young girls to be healthy? Yes. Do we want them to feel good when they go spend their hard-earned money on a pair of jeans? Yes. If you are over a size 12, should you be banned from the major chains? No."

To read Bianca Dye's full column, click here.