Ask Fashion Girl

Dear Precious:

I understand your dilemma! Junior sizes only go up to a 13, and then, it seems, we're left with few options. So what's a girl to do?

If you are one of the hard-to-fit, and believe me there are many of us, you might have to spend a bit more time shopping than other people as you research the stores and brands that are right for you. You may have to try on a lot of clothes that don't fit in order to find the few things that do. Being willing to do this is half the battle. Having a tailor or seamstress make alterations on your special finds is another weapon in your arsenal. Often larger clothes can be adjusted to fit correctly.

But here's a tip: Some stores make their clothes in size extra-large, which might be the right balance for you between"skinny-people"clothes and the plus-size range. Express carries extra-large, for example. For hip-hop and urban wear, drjays.com has women's clothing in XL. Jcrew.com carries size 16, as does delias.com (the jeans go up to size 20). Gap.com and oldnavy.com sell sizes up to 20, so everything on those sites should come in a size to fit you. American Eagle (ae.com) also has larger sizes on their website.

When looking for a broader range of sizes, investigate the online stores of your favorite brands. Often the website carries sizes the stores don't stock. With a little bit of creativity and some clever investigation, you should be able to pull together some nifty outfits!

Sincerely, Fashion Girl