Last week, Il Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s leading daily newspaper, reported that this year’s fashion shows in Milan would debut models with curves. Forget heroin chic (as Chanel, Burberry and H&M seem to doing in giving Kate Moss the boot). Plus sizes, as they’re so delightfully termed in America, are hitting the catwalk.

This summer, New Yorkers talked proudly about the advertisements plastered on city billboards and buses for “Dove” body cream that features “heftier” women in white bikinis. Instead of baring their ribs, they let their spare tires hang out. They stand with pride and confidence, and, frankly, have the body type of most women in the locker room (sorry, guys). That is, except in Italy.

Today I saw this Dove ad in an Italian fashion magazine, and it stood out like Pavarotti at a bikini contest. By Italian standards, I have no doubt that these Dove women would be considered “fat.” Whereas, in America, they are considered normal.

So, when I read in the Italian newspaper that “plus sizes” were finally making their debut in front of the likes of Suzy Menkes and other fashion critics in Milan this year, I thought maybe, at last, we had arrived to a healthy moment in setting trends. But then I saw that an Italian’s definition of a “plus size” is a 46 or, by American standards, a 10-12. In America, a plus size is usually someone who wears anything from a size 16 up (which might be a size 48 or 50 in Italian sizes). The newspaper even offers a visual of the sizes of women as they have changed over the years to show how “progressive” the shows have become over the years:

http://www.corriere.it/PrimoPiano/Cronache/2005/09Settembre/15/pop_taglie.shtml

As per the Corriere article, only 35% of Italy’s women fall into the category of plus sizes. Where does all the pasta go? It’s extremely difficult to find a size anything above a size 48 in Italy. But one thing I do love about Italians is that despite their age and often their shape, there’s one way they consistently wear their clothes: tight.