Why Fashion for Aliens

This blog is my attempt to chronicle the difficulties that women who are non standard sizes have coping with the limited ranges that there are on the British High Street to dress themselves fashionably.
I'm a UK size 20-22 (US 18-20, Euro 48-50) and I have a reasonable amount of money to spend on clothes. I could drop about £250 on a Business Suit but I can find precious few places that will allow me to do so.
If things are difficult for me then I can't imagine how much of an effort it must be if I were less than 5ft tall, more than 6ft tall, or if I had a disability that affected the choices I made when I got dressed.
To the fashion industry we are fashion aliens; creatures as odd or exotic to designers as your average Latvian model might seem if she were parachuted behind the checkout at your local Morrisons. The fact that we are present in sizable numbers seems to count for very little because the industry likes templates that are easy to supply and stock in mass numbers so we are literally marginalised and "tokenised". Stores may claim to offer clothes in wide size ranges but in practice tiny numbers of the sizes at the top and bottom of the scale are produced and often they are not displayed or restocked after an initial sale.
In postings I'll try to find good sources of clothes and I'll name those I think are the worst offenders. I'll probably also use this as a forum for chronicling my own shopping habits.
I'd love any input from anyone that takes the time to read this stuff; mostly I'll just be grateful (and a little embarrased) if you do.

Ange.