Paydirt!

Oh my gosh I think I died and hit religious fat woman heaven!

I went to the store I had heard about. It is called black and white and it is located in someone's storage space here in Beit shemesh. Yes, yo uheard me right. A storage locker.

Needless to say I was not expecting much.

Lord was I in for a surprise!

The place was tiny, but it was, quite literally stuffed with loads of stuff, and for the first time ever I could wear all of it! Not only did it fit (lets face it, there were stores in the past that dealt in large sized clothing so a store of stuff that fit was, while nice, not totally novel), but it was all totally religiously acceptable to my level of modesty. Obviously there were some pieces in which I would not be caught dead (a stripped chifon sparkely thing comes to mind) but theoretically I could buy and wear every single piece in the store!

Ok, so what was there.

Basically, it was a line of clothing, designed and produced in Israel, for people like me. There is a chain of stores that carry the clothing, but this was an independant supplier. The name of the brand is "Discreet".

The clothign was classy and elegant but not so boring as to scream "Hi there I am a religious fanatic who wants to be sure that men are not tempted by my gorgeous curves". They obviously had chosen not to only carry items for the strictest of the stric,t but also for the rest of us who actually like people to notice that we exist once in a while. (Ok, so I am not beign 100% fair. can you tell I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder).

I tried on 7 skirts. I wanted them all. I tried on 2 shirts. I wanted them both.

Aha, now here is the rub. I could not take them all becuase prices were, well, pricey. I took 2 skirts. One a long lycra mermaid ish sort of cut skirts. It was 140 nis (roughly $35). The other was a very israeli skirt, 2 layers, one a wool and the under one more of a cotton with tulle edging. Shades of brown. It was 240 nis (roughly $60). The shirt I got was just a soft, stretchy, light pink, long sleeved t shirt and it was 80 nis ($20). The prices may not sound so bad, but when you compare the fact that salaries here are lower, and non-plus sized stuff can be had for 50 nis and up, well the prices are a little steep.

Not too steep that I would not go back.

they do not carry sleepware, underwear, tights/stockings or any other sort of lengerie (they are not that progressive) so I still have no idea where to get that sort of stuff other than to bring it in.

Oh, and she wants ot have dispaly of my work and some cards in the shop. As she is the only plus sized show in town, and I do plus sized work, it seems like a good "shidduch" (match).