What: WWD covers “The Oprah Effect,” as it’s so dubbed, detailing how Oprah Winfrey kicked the manufacturing of plus-size undergarments –cute ones—into action. Now bras and underwear for curvy women are more readily available, more fashionable and becoming a money-making industry despite some recent drops in earnings.

Women’s Wear Daily: “The Oprah Winfrey Show” began featuring bra-fitting segments in 2005, and retailers and manufacturers got the message that women with fuller figures want innerwear that is comfortable and functional, but also fashionable. Another impact on the category: red-carpet divas including Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Fergie, Mo’Nique and Beyoncé, who have made it no secret that voluptuous curves were chic and desirable…

Maureen Stabnau, senior vice president of merchandising at barenecessities.com, agreed that plus-size women demanded more style options and the growth of the market caused vendors to come out with more designs, including sports bras and deep plunge bras.”

What We Say: It’s just plain unfortunate that it takes a super star such as ‘O’ to make changes in clothing trends, as these necessary developments should be based on the sheer fact that more people demand garments for the curvy figure and plus-size fashion. You know, that whole silly supply/demand thing? No? Anyway, that being said, thank goodness for Oprah and all that she’s done for those who don’t fall into the teeny-tiny category. Though we know America is dealing with obesity epidemics, news flash: There are healthy people over the size of 8–or whatever arbitrary number society has told us we need to aspire to–despite the fact that the fashion world often tries to pretend this isn’t the case. We obvi love fashion, we clearly love our plus size sisters and we of course love Oprah and other curvy celebs for making fashionable undergarments a possibility for real, normal women.