It's all very well if you're a skinny glamour puss, but what if you are a glamour plus? JO HAYWOOD goes in search of gorgeous clothes for gorgeous size 16+ gals.

UNMANACLE yourself from that desk, the boss shouted, and go shopping. It was like a dream come true: a dream that usually ends with me staggering home laden down with bags of fabulous clothes, a purse still bursting with cash and George Clooney's telephone number tucked neatly in my bra...

Sorry, drifted off there for a moment. Let's get back to reality and the rules of my shopping spree assignment. First, the clothes had to be glamorous enough for a festive party; second, the styles had to be available in a range of sizes to fit the average woman (i.e. size 16+); third, the clothes had to be on sale in the high street - or York's Coney Street in this case; and fourth, the boss was not going to trust me with a penny of the company's money so I could only look, not touch, charge or steal.

How tough could it be, I thought. Surely the city's busiest shopping street would be full of fantastic fashions for glamour plusses. After all, size 16+ women make up a large part of the style market. They have money to spend and wardrobes to fill.

Unfortunately, if my adventures in the consumer wonderland of Coney Street are anything to go by, their purses are going to remain full and their wardrobes empty.

Walking up the left hand side of Coney Street from the Spurriergate Centre, doing a swift about-turn by the Guildhall and staggering back down the right, I rummaged about in the following fashion emporiums...

Ann Harvey: a good range of sizes, particularly in the Dash collection, up to the early 20s. The casual clothes were wearable and contemporary, but the glamour rails were a bit mumsy and overburdened with glitzy sequins.

Pilot: for Munchkins only, these were teeny-tiny clothes for teeny-tiny people. There were some 16s lurking about, but most of the lines seemed to stop at 14.

Top Shop: more 6s than 16s here. To be honest, I couldn't find a 16, although most rails had at least one 14. The glamour was of a very young variety (i.e. tiddly bits of fabric and great swathes of bare flesh).

Miss Selfridge: once again, this seemed to be a bit like the valley of the dolls, or at least the valley of the dolls' clothes. The style was high on fun and low on glamour. In fact, the clothes looked like they had been designed for kids by kids. After much rummaging, I did manage to find one size 16.

Next: smart rather than glamorous, the party lines all included at least two 16s with the odd 18 thrown in. A limited petite range was available, but there wasn't a comparable plus collection.

Etam: the clothes were young and surprisingly dull to make much of a mark in the glamour stakes. There were, however, a pretty decent display of size 16s and 18s.

River Island: plenty of 8s and 10s, but nothing above a 16 (and there were precious few 16s if the truth be told). Glamour is not really what this store is about, so while there were some great casual ranges, the party gear was restricted to one small rail.

Viyella: the "20" labels hanging on virtually every rail fooled me for a moment into thinking I had stumbled across a plus sized Valhalla, until I realised they indicated 20 per cent off. There was lots of petite on offer here, but not very much grande - even the clothes labelled "large" looked a wee bit tiddly to me.

Mango: a large glamour department, but unfortunately no large glamour. There were plenty of size 6s to be had but I couldn't find anything above a size 14, which was disappointing because otherwise this was grade one glamour just begging to be bought.

Principles: once again, I spotted a petite range, but no obvious plus collection. There were, however, a good selection of pretty, satiny glamour items, with 16s, 18s and one 20 on virtually every rail.

Warehouse: almost blinded by the sheer number of sequins on offer here, I struggled to find any plus sizes. I eventually got my hands on a couple of 16s, but the cuts looked a bit on the tight side.

Wallis: this was just about top of the plus size pops. There was a good range of 16s and 18s, with more than a smattering of 20s, and the glamour factor was high, if a little muted when it came to colour.

Bhs: after being momentarily distracted by the Christmas goodies situated temptingly in the doorway, I managed to find some 16s, 18s and the odd 20, but the glamour was so low key it was barely recognisable.

Updated: 09:22 Tuesday, November 18, 2003