Katie Sturino loves fashion. But she doesn’t always feel up for it.
“I think that shopping in general is hard,” she told me over a video call. “I’m not saying it’s easy for thin people, but if you’re in a bigger body, you kind of expect to be disappointed a lot.”
Over the past decade, Sturino, a former publicist turned content creator, has documented those disappointments for hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, where she’s become sort of a fashion rebel with a cause.
“My mission is just to help women stop feeling bad about their bodies,” said Sturino, whose debut novel Sunny Side Up features a plus-size protagonist with similar struggles. So she calls out stores that don’t offer what she considers to be a size-inclusive range, often sharing dressing-room pics of herself clad in too-small garb. And she helps her followers find stylish pieces in extended sizes.
Despite the roadblocks, Sturino said she has not been deterred in her quest to find well-made, stylish clothes. She relies on staples, including work-appropriate suits that she can mix and match with more-casual items, well-fitting jeans, quality boots, and T-shirts. “Those are the pieces you reach for season after season,” she said.
Here is her best advice for creating a solid wardrobe — at any size.
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Find brands you trust — and invest in classics
“I don’t necessarily shop for what I like. Sometimes I shop for what is going to fit, especially in person,” she said. Brands that offer extended sizing often limit larger sizes to their e-commerce platforms, she said, and that means many people have to rely on online shopping.
But if you find a brand or a size that you like, Sturino’s wardrobe is evidence that it’s best to stick with what you love — and buy a lot of it. She owns some of her staples in multiple colors, and she prioritizes buying staples she can mix and match for both work and play. “Those are the things that you are just gonna keep wearing over and over,” she said. It helps that more brands are expanding their sizing and making those items available in stores, according to Sturino, who praised Abercrombie & Fitch and J.Crew as two brands that’ve expanded their offerings.
Finding a great white tee is often a fashion white whale. Sturino is especially fond of T-shirts by Jenni Kayne, a brand she said has evolved a lot in terms of size inclusivity.
“They’re very expensive, but the fact that they’re extending their sizing at that luxury price point is also a signal that that messaging is getting into some of those spaces where bigger people have never been welcome,” she explained. The Jenni Kayne Vintage Pocket Tee — available from XS to 3X — is her go-to: “I never quite feel right in other T-shirts.”
Wide calves are not often accommodated in fashion, especially when it comes to boots. Sturino’s search led her to Stuart Weitzman’s 5050 Boots, a back-stretch style that she praised for being suited to larger calves. “You can fit more of your body into that boot. They’re kind of a classic. It’s not a trend boot,” she said.
And while it’s easier to shop off the rack, Sturino said her struggle to find boots wide enough for her calves prompted her to explore the custom-made route. Fillies and Boots, a direct-to-consumer boot company that manufactures in Italy, is one brand she trusts. The boots range from $420 to $650, depending on the style, and Sturino said she’s willing to pay this price for quality. “They really do that so well, and those are boots I think you could invest in,” she said.
Sturino’s uniform also includes suiting, which she said she likes to wear for work as well as for leisure. She often breaks up the pieces into separate outfits, a styling trick that helps her “get away with spending less.”
Her go-to blazer is the Veronica Beard Miller Dickey Jacket. She said she’s worn it in a few colors, including cobalt blue, which she donned for an interview with Oprah. Sturino also praised the brand’s size range: For example, some versions of the Miller Dickey Jacket are available from a size 00 to a size 24.
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Get inspired by Hollywood, just a little
Despite the challenges with size inclusivity, Sturino has persisted, diligently navigating the sizing discrepancies in retail inventory, both online and in person. This has been particularly necessary for her social media series #SuperSizeTheLook, in which she re-creates celebrity style moments.
Sturino said that once she chooses a celebrity look, “I use Google as my friend.” She added, “I will just start with a ‘butter yellow blazer plus size’ and then see where it brings me.” Sturino said this search is necessary because she rarely finds the exact pieces she needs to re-create the celebrity outfits — they’re simply not available in her size.
Pulling inspiration from the A-listers, or even from Pinterest, requires some personal style reconnaissance. “Do you like that it’s a fitted skirt with an oversize top? The color blocking? The monochromatic-ness of the look?” she asked. “You have to just take out what the energy is that you like from the look and put that together in things that fit or are already in your closet.”
As part of her #SuperSizeTheLook series, Sturino said she recently pulled an outfit that was nearly identical to the one worn by Kerry Washington at the 2024 US Open. Washington’s outfit was head-to-toe Ralph Lauren, and this brand tends to not be widely available beyond size XXL. Sturino still pulled it off by sourcing similar pieces from other retailers, including a top from Macy’s, a pair of Gap shorts, and Naturalizer shoes. Same energy, indeed.
Cherry-pick your trends
When it comes to trends, Sturino said she doesn’t invest much in them. “I don’t really think it’s worth it to spend half of your rent on a piece that every single fast-fashion company is going to be copying in a season and it will be everywhere,” she explained. But she said some trends are worth it.
As a millennial, Sturino said she’s seeing trends from her early-2000s adolescence making a comeback in fashion — including low-rise jeans, baby tees, and spaghetti-strap tops. And it’s made her reconsider her own choices: “This is me living through my first trend cycle that I participated in, and now it’s back. And I’m like, ‘Wait, maybe you shouldn’t get rid of anything.’”
Thanks to the progress that’s been made in extended sizing, Sturino said she’s able to tap into those trends.
A trend she’s currently into is the comeback of skinny jeans: “The way that I’m seeing it styled, it feels really fresh,” she explained. Sturino said she’s partial to a slimmer silhouette, versus the jeggings of yesteryear.
Her current jeans du jour: Jamie Haller The Kenickie. Available from size 24 to size 36, the not-so-skinny jeans have a straight silhouette and a light flare with a cropped hem. They’re exactly on a par with what Sturino describes as her ideal jeans — basically, denim that’s high-waisted and lets her move with ease. Plus, these jeans are versatile. “Those are so easy to style with blazers, with sweaters, it’s just a really easy way to do a clean look.”
Sturino said in the aughts she wore “a boy’s undershirt” for years, a trend that has also made a comeback in the form of fashion-forward white tank tops. “I would go back to that,” she said, adding the Universal Standard Roitfeld Ribbed Tank as one of her favorites. And Universal Standard is one of the brands that Sturino thinks is doing true size inclusivity, with its giant range of sizes, from 00 to 40.
But don’t expect to see Sturino in a spaghetti-strap top à la Jennifer Aniston ever again: “I’m not going back for that, no,” she said.
This article was edited by Hannah Rimm and Catherine Kast.
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