‘Supported’: Chantelle Ellem’s favourite plus-size brand
Content creator Chantelle Ellem has revealed the challenges with shopping as a plus-size woman and the one brand she can’t live without.
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For Chantelle Ellem, growing up plus size in Australia meant dealing with a huge fashion obstacle.
There was simply “nothing that you could wear”, the Fat Mum Slim content creator tells news.com.au checkout.
“I worked at a clothing shop and I had to wear men’s jeans. It was such an awful experience to get dressed.”
RELATED: Active Truth founder reveals inspiration behind activewear brand
As a teen, Chantelle hated shopping with her friends because she would have to sit back while they tried everything on.
Fast forward to 2025 and Chantelle says the options for plus-size women have gotten so much better.
“It’s dangerous for my credit card,” she jokes.
‘Women deserved better’
One brand leading the way is Active Truth. Founded by two Australian women roughly ten years ago, the activewear brand came from the belief that women deserved better, founder Nadia Tucker previously told news.com.au checkout.
Unlike other activewear brands, Active Truth runs from size small to 3XL and also has pregnancy and post-partum ranges.
Chantelle is a fan of the brand herself. She first discovered it after seeing Zoe Foster Blake’s post about their pregnancy tights.
“[Active Truth clothes] just feel like a hug,” Chantelle says.
“Especially when you’re wearing something so tight … they just feel comfortable and I feel supported.”
If anyone knows about making quality plus-size clothes, it’s Chantelle. Years ago, the blogger-turned-content creator started her own brand. While it has since been sold, she says she started it to “help people feel beautiful in their bodies”.
Active Truth is doing exactly the same.
Chantelle is also is a huge fan of the brand’s swimwear.
Wearing swimwear can be such a vulnerable feeling, Chantelle acknowledges, but she says Active Truth has changed the game.
“I cannot put into words how great these feel. I don’t know how the (founders) have done it. I’m not even blowing smoke. They are just that good.”
She says the brand simply understands bodies so well and should be recognised for that.
‘We are just as valid as any other body in the world’
Still to this day, so many brands are not inclusive and as a customer and former owner of a fashion brand herself, Chantelle says she can “never understand it”.
“It makes you feel a bit dirty about them. Why don’t you understand that everyone wants to move? I can’t understand why people can’t just do a wider range,” she says.
She acknowledges that while it is more expensive to increase sizes for smaller brands, for larger brands that still only offer a small range, it’s inexcusable.
“I really, really think they’re missing out on being part of this world,” she says.
“This plus size community is so beautiful and so supportive and just so radiant with joy that (if) they’re not tapping into that is just their own massive loss.”
It’s also a huge financial loss, with the average Australian woman wearing a size 14-16 according to research from body-positive fashion app Mys Tyler. The same research also shows that 52 per cent of Australian women wear size 16 and above and over 36 per cent are considered plus-size, wearing a size 18 and above.
“It would be nice if they cater to us, but if they’re not willing to, then we will find someone else, and we will love them, and we’ll be grateful for the brands like Active Truth that look after us and do it look after us really, really well,” Chantelle says.
‘Fear of anyone seeing me’
Chantelle says that wearing swimwear in public, let alone posting it on social media, is a gradual process.
Like many other women around the world, Chantelle says that she used to bring her sarong to the beach and wear it right down to the shoreline, only taking it off at the last second.
“It was this vulnerability and fear of anyone seeing me,” she says.
She also recalls a similar experience years ago when on holiday.
“I was on a cruise ship with my husband and I really wanted to take a photo of myself in my cozzie.
“I remember I had a sarong on and I was like, quickly, I’ll take the photo right now. And I was probably size 18, so smaller than I am now, as a 24.
“But I just, I look at that photo in this tropical place, and I was so scared of anyone just glimpsing at my body in this cozzie but I wanted to mark the moment of where this beautiful place I was in.”
Now in her 40s, Chantelle says the realisation that life is short has also made a big difference.
“This is the youngest I’ll ever be. This might be the thinnest or the most beautiful I’ll ever be.
“I think if someone’s offended by it, then that’s their problem.
“I’m just being me, and I just need to live my best life. And if I want to get in the water, that’s what I have to do.”
As a final message to the non-inclusive brands of the world, Chantelle says, “We exist and we are just as valid as any other body in the world.”
Interested in more fashion content? Find out how to build a capsule wardrobe, and discover why wearing these jeans all week was a cost of living and style revelation.
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