Back in middle school and high school, I loved catalogs. I spent hours pouring over Delia*s and Alloy, but sadly, none of their clothing came in my size.
Enter Girlfriends L.A., which made clothing up to a juniors 25/3XL. And even had plus-size models (and a more diverse group of models in general).
I bought a bunch of shirts, including the Tinkerbell shirt that you can see in this post, and wore the crap out of them.
Unfortunately, GFLA no longer exists. But I’m still thankful to them for making early ’00s funky fashion available to (at least some) fat girls.
Flipping through the catalogs today is an exercise in major fashion-stalgia. I’ve scanned a few pages so you can share that experience:
Getting this in the mail? Always exciting.
I had the pink kitty shirt! And Willow on BtVS had a similar one.
Not quite a fatkini, but close.
Pleather pants! Why are they not still a thing?
SO MUCH PINK. I like it.
Oh, early ’00s cell phone.
My love of leopard print was forged in this era.
Glitter, glitter, everywhere.
And more glitter!
Seeing fat chicks in pleather = crucial to the development of a healthy body image.
Fancypants. Literally.
Wow! Thank you for the blast from the past! I remember I exclusively wore GFLA jeans and makeup in middle school and high school! My dearest mom (who died 2 years ago and I miss terribly) used to give me her credit card with a set limit to spend and let me browse the website and catalogs for my back to school shopping! Looking at the pages you scanned brought back a ton of memories! I remember being so upset when they went out of business… Now, I think I’ll spend the remainder of my day flipping through photo albums and remembering the girly fun I had with my mom buying GFLA clothes and giggling at the pleather pants. :’)
You’re welcome! I’m sorry to hear about your mom, and I am glad that this post brought back happy memories.
You are so awesome for scanning these! I would kill to have been able to keep my old GFLA & Delia’s catalogs.
Thanks! This is the one time where my habit of never throwing anything out comes in handy.
I also have a bunch of scans from Delia’s and Alloy that I am going to post soon!
Thanks so much for posting this! I was just googling Girlfriends LA to see if there were still around. I used to buy all my flare jeans from them. Such memories <3
You’re welcome! I know, they were the best.
omg! finally i found a flashback i thought i was the only one that still remembered this catalog i used to love signing up for catalogs i would save all of them and i still have some old pages of the back of teen and seventeen you know the ones with the coolest catalog requests.
i wish they still had this website
I know, I wish I still had it too!
they had the coolest things this catalog was better than delias and alloy!!
Definitely! GFLA was the best.
i was going through old clothes to sell and came across a duster sweater that i got out of their catalogs!! god i miss this one and those hideous red pleather pants that you posted above bahahaha !
Thank you so much for the blast from the past. As a lifelong fat girl, this magazine made me feel normal and I felt like I could really fit in in those crucial early teen years. Not to mention that their clothes lasted forever! I slept in a pair of their sweatpants through college!
Holy shitballs! Page 34? I had the whole fucking thing. (I’m trying to find a pair of jeans I had back then…don’t mind me!)Thanks!
Oh yeah, and I curse like a sailor…feel free to put me in check during moderation.
Don’t worry, I curse a lot too!
Awesome!
Mind if I pull some pics of the catalog and link back to you?
Sure, go for it!
I just love your post so much! I too was a GirlfriendsLA lover!
I wish they would have never gone away. Looking at your scanned photos bought tears to my eyes. 
..What a walk down memory-lane. *sniffs*
Torri
Thanks! I wish they had never gone away too.
Awesome post!! I loved GFLA!! Wish that they had never went out of business. Does anyone know of a catalog or place online to buy clothes like that? Please don’t tell me torrid. Not a big fan of theirs.
Thanks! I wish they had never gone out of business too. I’m not sure if there’s anywhere to buy clothes like that now–maybe Simply Be or Yours Clothing? They have a few things that are similar.
I just found this post through a search engine and wow – talk about nostalgia!! I remember looking at some of these exact pages in the catalogs! And that leopard-print skirt with black lace trim? Totally rocked that in 6th grade. Thanks for the blast from the past!!
Haha, awesome! You’re welcome!