What does the word Bariatric mean? One definition reads:-Pertaining to bariatrics, the field of medicine concerned with weight loss. Bariatric is a very new word in the English language, possibly in use for no more than ten or twelve years and an easy working definition could be 'hugeley overweight'. By the time a person is considered, by the medical profession to be bariatric, their weight has become a serious problem and their health will be suffering as a consequence of the amount of fat being stored by the body. By this time, the person will be having other problems besides medical ones, for instance, he or she will be requiring a reinforced bed to sustain their weight and buying clothes will have become a nightmare. That's where The Big Bloomers Company come in , we manufacture our own range of Supersize - extra large ladies knickers up to 8XL and Supersize - huge mens boxer underpants.

Where do you go when 6xl knickers don’t fit anymore?

One of the ‘hidden’ problems of getting bigger is that knickers don’t fit any more.  As the weight slowly, very slowly piled on, the ‘man on the market’ always seemed able to accommodate you with the next size up…. from 1xl to 2xl to 3xl…. no problem, in fact there’s even several different styles and patterns for you to choose from.  Then, you find a 4xl would be more comfortable….  getting a bit worried now, this is more than just a bit hefty round the hips, but your friendly ‘market man’ assures you you’re all right, he does them plenty bigger than that he assures you and there’s still quite a bit of choice of patterns and styles.  So, 5xl – still the ‘market man’ can sort you out and even offer you a choice, though, its more limited.   Eventually, 6xl…… no choice now and sometimes your friendly market man hasn’t got anything that big, “I don’t get much call for the 6xl, luv” he tells you as a slightly critical glance sweeps your girth, however he promises to bring them the next week. Its then that you begin to get a little worried, perhaps its not going to be that easy to keep yourself in knickers any more, you think. The market man’s as good as his word though and the following week he’s got your voluminous 6xl knickers for you – no choice mind you, you took what he offered gratefully and without bothering to ask if there was anything else for you to choose from, just glad that he’d remembered to bring them and also relieved that there wasn’t some stripling size 12 waiting at the side of you to be served.

When, a few years later, you tell your Market Man that you could do with a bit more room in them, he tells you that there isn’t anything bigger. You try another market in another town, but different stall, same story, none of the knickers manufacturers go above a 6xl.

That’s when may daughter Laura and I came on the scene with The Big Bloomers Company.

‘I want you to search online and see what’s the biggest size knickers you can find’ an email from my Cornwall based daughter instructed.  Laura weighs about 9 stone so she certainly wasn’t in need of big knickers herself and she gave no reason why she wanted me to make this strange search, but, being a good and dutiful mum, I did as I was told and trawled the net to find big knickers.  Normally, I would buy panties in a size 12 so I was immediately plunged into unknown territory and it soon became apparent that there was nothing bigger than a 6xl, though admittedly, this seemed to me, at that time, big enough to accommodate the most ample behind.  I also became aware that at this size there was a woeful lack of selection. Virtually no choice of fabric and the only style available was a panty.   Long legs for winter warmth – forget it! Boxer style to wear with shorts – forget it!   

I reported back to Laura and found that my research had mimicked her own. ‘Where do really big women buy their knickers then?’ she asked and after a short pause I learned what this was all about…… ‘You used to insure some manufacturers who made underwear, didn’t you mum. Can you go and see them, find out about making big knickers?’  And so www.thebigbloomerscompany.co.uk was born. Laura was going to build the website and as a retired insurance broker from the Midlands my remit was to contact my old clients and discuss, instead of insurance, the manufacture of very large knickers.

Immediately, I ran into problems.  I had retired when I was fifty and now, some fifteen years later there were few lingerie manufacturers left in the Black Country where I’d worked and those whom I approached seemed reluctant to discuss my requirements.  I realise, looking back, that this was not that they were being indifferent so much as my ignorance of how to set about getting an item into manufacture.  I didn’t have a clue about going into production, I assumed that the manufacturer would make the patterns, acquire the fabric and hold my hand throughout the whole process. Not so.  It became clear after visiting several small manufacturers that it was up to me to supply the pattern, source the fabric and the elastic and the wash/size labels.

The item I wanted manufacturing caused problems too.  The very few lingerie manufacturers that I located were all owned by Asian men who were not at all used to discussing the manufacture of very large knickers with a woman – especially a woman who hadn’t a clue what questions she should be asking and what knowledge base she should already have had to be considering going into manufacture in the first place.

One manufacturer agreed to see me only in the presence of his daughter, a young woman of about fifteen who translated for him - though I soon had the feeling that we could have got along well enough without her.  All seemed to be going very well, he agreed to get patterns made for me (I’d called them templates till he corrected me) and showed me samples of fabric, asking me to select what weight I required (weight? I hadn’t realised fabric came in weights) and what about the waist band, did I want it tunnelled? All these questions I didn’t know I was going to be asked.... I could see that the fellow was beginning to get irritated, thought I was just a time-waster.  It all fell apart when I mentioned that I required a double gusset.  Not sure if it was this particular piece of anatomy that he wasn’t prepared to discuss with his daughter present of if he’d just had enough of me, but he threw his hands up, muttered something to his daughter and shuffled off down the workshop. That was the end of that.  However, two more similar sort of meetings and I was beginning to learn what questions to ask and how to present my case and eventually, on a small trading estate in Leicester we found Brindy, a pony-tailed young man who was prepared to work with us on the project.  Brindy’s father came to the UK in the 1970’s and established his business before sending for his wife and starting a family.  Brindy, who is in his early twenties, joined his father straight from school and we deal exclusively with him as his father, like other men in his age group, seemed reluctant to get involved.  Brindy, though, seems to be enjoying a great deal of street cred amongst his fellow manufacturers as being the Outsize Knickers King. 

The Big Bloomers Company stumbled into production in the autumn of 2007 with our 7xl and 8xl panty style knickers – designed to accommodate hips up to 60inches (155cms).  Our customers were very enthusiastic and gave us enormous help to tweak the design and make the knickers more accommodating to the ‘fuller figure’. We soon learned that using a 6xl pattern and making it bigger was not the way forward. The ‘fuller figure’ changes as it fills out and the shape of the knickers needed to change too.  We learned about ‘the tummy flap’ and that knickers tend to ride up under the flap which can cause grievous discomfort. We learned that thick thighs rub together and chafing thighs are a torment in the summer, so, we designed the Big Bloomers Long Legged knickers and then the short legged version – a boxer style for the more active of our customers.

Carers, Care Home matrons and National Health Trusts have found their way to our website as well as husbands who are more internet savvy than their wives and harassed daughters who are at their wits end with trying to ‘find knickers big enough for mother to wear’. I am the voice at the end of the Big Bloomers phone and I’ve got quite knowledgeable chatting about what style knickers may best suit a particular need. A year after producing our first Big Bloomers we went into production with our www.bigpapaspants.co.uk range for men.  Eventually, because of our name, we were persuaded to manufacture authentic, old fashioned, supersize bloomers – and they’ve been worn in many pantomimes up and down the country this past two seasons, not to mention the mother superior who has them as regulation issue at her convent ‘the stone floors here are very chilly, you know’      

Visit www.thebigbloomerscompany.co.uk for long legged and short legged knickers and panties in supersizes up to 9xl (hips 64inches – 165 cms). Loungers, T shirts and leisure trousers up to 8xl.   www.bigpapaspants.co.uk for mens boxer style pants to 10xl (hips 75inches – 190 cms)