Hi, I just got my first copy of the Woman Within catalog. Have never heard of it, but see that it's related to LB. Just thought I would pass the name along bc they had lots of things of interest like workout clothes, Plus size (wide calf) boots, swimwear, intimates, and a ton of great looking business suits, and sizing up to 5X. If interested, here's the website:

womanwithin.com

Code LB6653 will get you $15 off $30 or more. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for the info. They do have some great things! I just wish they would have enough respect for their clientele to use "plus-size" models!
*******(heavy sigh)*******
Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day ;-)
Thanks again for the info and the discount code!

Woman Within is Lane Bryant's "new name" it had something to do with the split between the stores and the catalog years ago, I think they had to change the name by a certain date.

BCOutlet is where Roaman's WW (the old LB) and a bunch of other Redman owned shops send clearance items. I love shopping there because if you check often, you can get amazing sale prices. They sell out of the larger sizes first, but I've gotten some really great stuff, really cheap.

Hear hear. I refuse to shop from those catalogs that don't use models that could wear the clothes. It's painfully obvious that the small models are absolutely swimming in the plus-size outfits and it completely nulls the point of having clothes modeled—which is to give you an idea what they would look like worn.

Seeing a model wearing bike shorts, which are supposed to fit skin tight, and the shorts look like loose walking shorts on her, is ridiculous. I can only imagine how many pins and clips are used to bunch up loose material in the backs of these poor girls just to try to give the illusion that this size 14 fits that size 2 model. I swear the photographers have a small arsenal of about 5 "loose material-hiding" poses they put the models in as well.

Yeah - their models are too small. JMS, Silhouettes and Junonia have great models - realistic models.

I wanted to share my happiness about a place I found for wide calf boots after searching for years and I am in 7th heaven! :smokin I found them at WideWidths.com since they sell the greatest wide calf boots! I just got my second pair of boots with a wide calf circumference from them and I have NEVER been able to find a pair of boots before in my life! They have nice fashionable styles - all the stuff that the skinny calf women are wearing! Their customer service department is great too since they answer you within a few hours and they are very nice and helpful. Every single boot on their site comes only for wide calves so you don't waste your time looking through sites to find out that nothing will fit you. I never thought I'd be able to find a pair of boots for my big legs and I also wear a wide width too (thanks Grandma!) as if one thing wasn't enough. What a great place to shop - you'll love their stuff. :b

I don't see that, and WW and Roaman's do sell clothing in M and L as well as X sizes. That said, since they make plus-size clothing their specialty, I agree they should have at least some plus-size models.

They have some clothing MARKED as M or L, but it actually isn't. If you look at their sizing charts, a Medium at Roamans is actually what an XL would be in a regular store...so even if the model is wearing a Roamans medium, and she is a larger model by model standards...she is still a "real" size medium wearing an XL.

The clothing IS looser on a lot of the women. Some of the items they can cinch up in back and pin to make it look like it fits them, but in some of the shots you can see that the t-shirts or tunics are way, way too large on them.

I like the Lane Bryant (store) models, Torrid models, etc. They actually have women who are about a size 14-16 wearing the clothing...not a size 8 or 10 wearing the 14-16 size.

I agree with you about the models. We could all email them and share our concerns. If we don't make them aware of our feelings they won't know or change. Here's the adress to find their email page.


https://www.womanwithin.com/ContactUs/ContactUs.aspx

I just did this...

You are right. If no one tells them, how will they know that we want change?

Email them!

Come to think of it you could be right, I order 2x from Roaman's/WW but 3x from other catalogs. I'll take an extra-close look at the catalogs and I'll write to the customer website Settie links to.

Silhouettes has some beautiful clothes - their models are on the smaller end of plus size but way more realistic. I think it says they are sized on a size 18 model.

Follow-up 1: I did write to WW customer service and said politely that I'd appreciate their using larger models. They wrote back equally politely that I wasn't the first customer to make such a comment, without saying unequivocally that they would or would not change their policies. (No, the subject line on the reply was NOT "send this itch-bay the bedbug letter")

Follow-up 2: I looked in the catalogs I've gotten since then and I still don't think the clothes (apart from the odd t-shirt) look over-big on any of the models. That could mean that either they make a smaller piece for the models to wear, or (per luminous and aphil) they're expert at pinning the pieces and posing the models so that the pieces don't look too big. The models themselves don't look scrawny, but they aren't plus-sized either at least as I define plus-size: what's-her-name, not Liv but she's Steven Tyler's (of Aerosmith) daughter, is called a "plus-size model" but her weight is in the 130s range; then there's Emme who really does weigh around 200 #. These models are closer to what's-her-name Tyler than they are to Emme, for sure

Mia Tyler?

I don't know her current weight-but at the height of her modeling career, she weighed more than 130 pounds. I would have put her more around 160ish. She was definitely no 130. My husband used to have a big thing for her, and we had lots of magazines etc./ with her in them.

The models aren't scrawny like a runway model...but they are still a size 10 or 12 wearing an outfit that is a size 18. They *do* do a lot of pinning. You aren't going to see it in the waists and busts of the shirts, because they pin them from behind. Look at the necklines, which are going to be a tad too large, or the ends of the sleeves-which will be much wider than a regular sized shirt would be on their arms. They can also take their smaller size (such as with jeans) and have a seamstress alter them down for the photo.

Yes, that's right, thanks a lot. And I couldn't have sworn by her weight but like I say the number they said she weighed was not what I'd consider plus