A Pear-Shaped Life

We are very excited to have been invited by Vanja Beric from Radiant Women to a podcast about pear-shaped women. Vanja is an expert in finding your radiance. During the podcast, we were able to relay our support for our community in understanding the stories we tell ourselves that are deeply rooted and shape the way we see ourselves and our bodies.

Pear-shaped women have always had a horrible relationship with fashion for decades. More often than not, this horrible relationship led to a lot of frustration for women, some ending in tears in the fitting room.

Ill-fitting clothes are a factor that contributes to pear-shaped women having a poor body image. Having a negative self-concept affects our sense of self-worth, self-esteem, and self-confidence. As a result, our body image is negatively impacted, and body positivity is repressed, causing disparaging relationships with our curvy bodies.

At Pear Collections, we advocate that women of all shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicities are beautiful, and we encourage pear-shaped women to #loveyourcurves. Being comfortable with who you are and in your own skin is what we define as true beauty.

Breaking the Status Quo

During the podcast, I was asked the hard questions about my personal journey that led me to create Pear Collections. It’s no secret that pear-shaped women constitute a great number of women out there. Sadly, it has always been that not many brands cater to this large niche, when, clearly, there are opportunities if and when this market is addressed.

I stated that the fashion industry has always designed its clothing for rectangular women to align with the “status quo.” I added that the rectangular pattern fits a wide range of body types. But in my experience, the status quo is never going to work, since it can fit one segment of the market while leaving another segment completely out.

This creates a mindset that makes it seem like it’s our fault that off-the-rack clothes don’t fit. Situations like these cause frustration and deep resentment towards our own bodies.

It may seem trivial, but the mere act of trying on a mountain load of clothes and having nothing fit right impacts one’s self-esteem. It also affects our self-confidence, negatively stirs our emotions, and fosters negative thought patterns.

Maintaining the status quo in fashion alienates a vast number of women. But we maintain that, regardless of your pear-shaped, curvy body size, these non-inclusive designs still won’t fit you right.

And that’s why I founded Pear Collections with a mission to initiate change. We aim to celebrate, support, and promote a welcoming environment for pear-shaped women everywhere. And we do this by aiming to eliminate this decade's long, horrible relationship pear-shaped women have with fashion, which created a box that is catered perfectly for pear-shaped women to fit into.

We want women to feel good about their bodies and cherish themselves, their curves and all. Each body is beautiful, and it is the only one we will have for the rest of our lives. We not only want you to look great in capsule clothing that fits, but also to feel great and comfortable in your own skin.

Loving Yourself

During the podcast, the subject of self-loathing and hating your body type came. I relayed my experience from my younger years of doing things like putting on makeup and having my hair done on a daily basis. These things I realised I was doing basically to put up a facade to boost my self-worth and self-value during my teenage years.

However, a realisation came to me that made me decide to smash that facade I built around myself and begin a journey to put greater value on myself, love myself more, and accept who I am and my body type. Admittedly, it’s an ongoing process.

That awareness helped me create Pear Collections, which I aim to do the same for the pear-shaped community and lead them away from the belief that “Barbie” is an ideal body type. Sadly, this is the unrealistic standard of beauty we were all raised with, playing with her and dressing her up as kids.

As far as these made-up characters are concerned, perhaps one that young girls should focus on is Tinker Bell. She is of slender build and pear-shaped. She is feisty, extremely confident, and has a headstrong personality to boot.

This is just my point of view, but I find it a bit ironic that one of the most realistically portrayed Disney females comes in the shape of a pixie. While Tinker Bell does have a super-skinny waist, she is one Disney female I have seen whose lower body is not exactly proportionate to her upper body, a typical petite pear.

But I digress. Moving forward, self-love is closely tied to our self-esteem, which is a vital component of good mental health. It is also about our overall sense of self-worth and learning to appreciate all the things that make each of us unique.

We can all be critical of ourselves from time to time, but that’s okay. I have been critical of myself, too, like I said, loving and accepting yourself is an ongoing process.

By being kind to ourselves, we lower our anxiety and stress levels and help build our self-esteem and our resilience. Being in tune with yourself makes it easier to live a life that’s authentically yours. Self-love gives us the courage to be assertive, set boundaries, and make better life decisions.

Fashion that Fits

Having been in the fashion industry for a long time, I recall that in fashion school, I used to make clothes for models. Yes, it’s almost self-sabotaging to be designing clothes that I knew, even back then, wouldn’t fit me.

Painfully traumatic as it was, I am thankful for that fateful day when I was out shopping for a pair of black pants with my partner, grabbing 20 of them and having nothing fit me. That pivotal moment was the spark that gave breath to Pear Collections, allowing it to come into being and put out clothes for women like me that fit, are comfortable, and will connect us as a community.

Pear Collections makes it easy for pear-shaped and curvy women to shop from the comforts of their homes or offices using their mobile phones, tablets, or computers. Shop our capsule clothing collections, all designed for the gorgeous you.

Have a listen to the podcast with Vanja here, or watch it on YouTube. And while you’re at it, we invite you to shop our collections of sustainable capsule clothing, all designed to fit the gorgeous you.