Plus-size Parisian fashion show celebrates beauty of curves

Yes, French women do get fat. And the curvier among them are tired of being dictated to about what they can wear, as they showed on a plus-size Parisian catwalk.

From horizontal stripes to a bra playing peek-a-boo under a blazer, buxom models taking part in a show organised by Pulp Fashion Week on Friday put paid to the myth that the ideal, chic French woman is wafer thin.

"We have always been told that round women cannot be beautiful and sexy, that you have to dress yourself in old-fashioned stores," said Blanche Kazi, who founded the plus-size Pulp Fashion Week in 2013.

She said the idea that only the minuscule sizes seen in magazines represented real beauty was "dictatorship".

"Look at my models, they are size 42 to 50 [US 10 to 18, British 14 to 22] - and they all have a voluptuous beauty."

Sexy lingerie, cocktail chic, and summer dresses: the clothes seen on the runway in a prelude to Pulp Fashion Week in April are not that easy to find in Parisian stores in these sizes.

Plus-size fashion has expanded rapidly in recent years, with runway shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris and designers increasingly adapting to the fact that skinny models are far from the norm.