Fashion

Melissa McCarthy’s crusade against the “plus-size” label

Melissa McCarthy isn’t just busting ghosts. The comedienne has voiced that she wants to ban the term “plus-size” from clothing lines.
Melissa McCarthy

Melissa is Hollywood’s golden girl but the actress has now added fashion designer to her impressive resume and she is already making waves.

Her new clothing line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7, comes in sizes 4 through 28, but the funnylady is very serious about not labelling her clothes “plus-size”.

“Women come in all sizes,” Melissa explained to Refinery29 in a new interview.

“Seventy percent of women in the United States are a size 14 or above, and that’s technically “plus- size”, so you’re taking your biggest category of people and telling them, ‘You’re not really worthy.’ I find that very strange.”

Adding, “I also find it very bad business. It doesn’t make a lot of sense numbers-wise. It’s like, if you open a restaurant and you say, ‘We’re primarily gonna serve people that don’t eat.’ It’s like, what? You would be nuts. Yet, people do it with clothing lines all the time, and no one seems to have a problem with it. I just don’t get why we always have to group everything into a good or bad, right or wrong category.”

It is clear Melissa is passionate about breaking down image barriers and putting a stop on body-shaming.

“I just think if you’re going to make women’s clothing, make women’s clothing. Designers that put everyone in categories are over-complicating something that should be easy.”

Her line launches on September 1 and keen Aussie customers can purchase her creations through Nordstrom.

The 44-year-old has taken from her experiences and wants others to learn. In an interview with More magazine, the mother-of-two admitted she wanted to be part of the change and to help woman love themselves.

“There is just this weird thing about how we perceive women in this country. I would love to be a part of breaking that down,” the mother-of-two, who is married to a actor Ben Falcone admitted.

“People don’t stop at size 12,” she explained.

“I feel like there’s a big thing missing where you can’t dress to your mood above a certain number. [Shopping centres] segregate plus-size [women]. It’s an odd thing that you can’t go shopping with your friends because your store is upstairs hidden by the tire section. We’ll put you gals over there because we don’t want to see you and you probably don’t want to be seen.”

And it looks like she has quite a collection on her hands. The Spy actress admitted to People that she created a line that she’d wear.

“I want pockets in my dresses. I put pockets in everything! I want pockets inside my pockets,” she laughed.

But the cutest thing has to be her favourite piece of clothing – a sweater with a cat saying “meow.”

“My daughter drew it and it just kind of breaks my heart,” she said.

Melissa is incredibly excited for the September 1 launch of her clothing range. The jumper on the left is her favourite item from the collection as the cat was drawn by her daughter. Talk about purrfection!

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