An influencer in Guangzhou, China, is filling what she calls a gap in the market: high-end clothes for plus-sized customers. She joins a growing movement of body acceptance influencers as she works to make bright and carefully crafted clothes in large sizes.
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00:00China's biggest cities are teeming with luxury malls and high fashion brands.
00:08But in Guangzhou, there's a clothing brand that's trying something new.
00:15Thirty-five-year-old influencer Amanda Yao wants to fill what she says is a gap in fashion
00:21markets, high-quality clothes for plus-sized people.
00:26So she opened an online store, Yue Design, selling bright, carefully crafted pieces to
00:32help customers showcase their unique style.
00:35I want my clothes to be worn by my customers, so that my customers can see their inner selves,
00:44and not just a piece of clothing that doesn't have a soul.
00:49Yao's mission stems from her own experience trying, and failing, to find clothes that
00:55she liked.
00:56She says international luxury brands sell plenty of high fashion clothing for people
01:01in smaller sizes.
01:04But for plus-sized customers, those clothes are not so easy to come by.
01:19To promote her store, Yao posts pictures of her own outfits on Xiaohongshu, a Chinese
01:35app that is similar to Instagram.
01:38In her posts, she calls on people to hashtag, Reject Body Anxiety, a phrase that is tagged
01:44in hundreds of thousands of posts on Xiaohongshu.
01:48Her efforts are part of a body acceptance movement that has become popular in China,
01:56as influencers post pictures of themselves enjoying food and rejecting the pressure to
02:01diet.
02:02The reason why we might be seeing more resistance or rebellion against beauty standards as they
02:07currently stand, I think firstly because, you know, I think at least some people will
02:14have attempted a diet or tried to shrink their bodies to no avail in terms of addressing
02:22those deeper emotional and psychological needs.
02:26Yao faces headwinds too, in an online landscape that still leans heavily on exacting beauty
02:31standards.
02:33Some viewers leave cruel comments on her posts.
02:37Meanwhile, eating disorders are on the rise in China, according to data from the Shanghai
02:42Mental Health Center.
02:43People have told their own stories about how they were affected when they were young, and
02:49how they couldn't show their arms, and how they felt that they had to hide their muscles.
02:57There are also notes about me wearing a very comfortable, tight dress, and I have a small
03:03belly.
03:05But Yao is determined to break the mold.
03:08As new TikTok challenges have women squeezing into children's clothes, she hopes that her
03:13brand will be the one to set the next big trend.
03:17One where fashion gives everyone the chance to show off their truest selves.
03:22Dolphin Chen and Sonia Schlesinger for Taiwan Plus.