XLQ, the fashion mag for the Big Man

The story of XLQ, THE fashion magazine for the Larger Man

"XLQ", THE fashion mag for the larger man.


Bernie Hughes, serial entrepreneur, a restless 'idea guy', had been looking for a new outlet for his creative energies when he, basically by accident, created America's fastest growing, most influential specialty fashion magazine, XLQ.

As the founder of clothing design house "MRC" - Most Roomy Comfort - and then creato and principal owner of "Big Adventure", the most successful Big and Tall clothing chain ever, Bernie had already achieved much over a decade in the bigger end of the fashion field - ten years of creating designs for more fashionable clothes for big guys, then of turning them into real products, then of getting those clothes on the shelves of shops across the breadth of the USA. Even back at the beginning, Bernie had imagined a world in which he and other big men could easily find fashionable duds that fit well. He knew there was a huge market for the 'wide fit' counterpart of the omnipresent 'slim fit' - and he had strived to make that dream become reality.

But a decade of changing markets, changing tastes, growing American waistlines and a touch of fate produced a newer and bigger opportunity - a 'bigger adventure' - for Bernie. MRC and then Big Adventure may have begun with clothes, but they have grown into much more than just a clothing chain. Big Adventure has grown - 'bulked up' - into a lifestyle destination for the bigger man, and more, much more - it's become a positive force for the larger man, making fat guys loved and desired across America!

Big Adventure's provocative and appealing advertising has helped turn fat guys - the guys who need its 'Wide Fit' clothes, the formerly ignored sector of US manhood - from shunned to sexy, across the USA ... and beyond.

Taglines like "Once you'd had fat, you'll never go back," "more to love," "bigger is better," "huge 'n' sexy" - they're now turning up in memes, movies, songs, ... and in women's desires.

Big Adventure's 'coming of age', you might say, was when it was blamed, by name, by the US Surgeon General for encouraging the expanding waistlines of American teen boys and young men. This attempt at public shaming backfired - more women, and men, noticed Big Adventure, and were turned on by its portrayal of bigger men as attractive and sexy - making big guys MORE desirable, not less!

The net result? More women are looking for fat guys, not less. No wonder America has a so-called 'obesity epidemic', with all the love for fat guys now on the go!

Bernie, who knows an opportunity when he sees one, summed up this inadvertent promotion of his business by noting, "If you look at the early 21st century, American guys have been doing two things: living longer, and getting fatter. I believe these two facts are linked. The growing size of American males has gone hand in hand with their growing longevity. It's not obesity that killing American men - reducing obesity in America would do little to improve men's health. What would? Well, reducing stress, reducing drug use, and providing access to good food, exercise, and universal health care - now those would improve the health of men! In the meantime, if ladies want bigger men, well..."

The origins of Big Adventure's success in the US fashion industry can be traced to one of Bernie's decisions in particular - his decision to hire as his first full-time model, the poised, clean-cut, well-above-average-sized Roger Craig, whose sex appeal began with his hefty charm, but soon transcended his growing, super-sized frame.

Roger's massive good looks and 'boy next door' personality contributed tremendously to Big Adventure breaking out of the "niche retailer" zone into the mainstream of American retail fashion. Roger's success as a model was in putting clothes for the bigger male into the middle of the American fashion market. Even fashionistas who claimed to 'hate fat people' were susceptible to Roger's substantial charms.

Roger's own tale of challenge and success through growth contributed heavily to the expansion and success of Big Adventure.

At first, Roger's growth was just his own, private goal - he was getting bigger because he wanted to, and because he and his wife Cindy enjoyed it. Cindy assertively fostered Roger's growth, bolstering his self-confidence regularly - as she loved the substantial changes in her steadily growing, sexy husband. Crucially, it was she who spotted Big Adventure's unusual employment ad, and encouraged her corpulent husband to try out for the advertised modelling position.

Cindy had discovered Big Adventure - then just one local store - when she was searching for stylish clothes for her Roger, whose burgeoning bulk had started to exceed the sizes regularly carried in their usual local men's clothing stores.

When Cindy first brought up the topic of applying for the modelling job, Roger dissembled. Prancing on a catwalk was not his thing, he told her - but she didn't give up. She was convinced he would be a natural in front of the advertiser's camera - as she herself loved photographing him! Undaunted by his doubts, Cindy assembled a small portfolio of her own photos of Roger wearing Big Adventure clothes, and went with them to the store - where they ended up on Bernie's desk, as he was handling his small store's PR, hiring, and much else, as store owner. Bernie was quite taken by this wife who was so confident in her husband that she would bring in photos of him - but, crucially, Bernie also liked the looks of her husband, and how he filled out Big Adventure's fashions in such a winning, handsome way.

Taking the bull directly by the horns, Bernie called Cindy and asked her to come in, and bring Roger with her to audition. When Cindy explained that Roger had refused to even consider the idea, Bernie suggested she bring him for a "special private fitting session". At that session/audition, together with clothes fitting, Bernie had served snacks and beer, so that by the time he suggested to Roger that he pose for a few photos, in return for free clothing, Roger was in a receptive mood. A few weeks later, at a second 'private fitting session,' Roger let himself be convinced by both Cindy and Bernie (and the beer?) to sign on as a model for Big Adventure.

Bernie was thrilled.

So was Cindy.

And an unusual modelling career was launched.

Bernie thought Roger was a natural - in fact, Bernie thought Roger had such an abundance of natural charisma and talent for modelling Big Adventure's larger fashions, that he offered Roger a full-time job after only a couple more modelling sessions.

The offer did come with one condition though - a condition Bernie cleared with Cindy in advance. Roger had to agree to an objective of 'personal improvement' - Bernie wanted Roger to grow bigger! Bernie had decided on this audacious 'ask' after much careful consideration. Bernie had commissioned a careful analysis of Big Adventure's sales data, and the data confirmed Bernie's observations that the fastest growth area in their clothing sales was to men substantially larger than Roger's current size.

While most 'big and tall' shops employed models who on the small end of their clothing ranges, Bernie's intuitive inspiration was that if his bigger potential customers could see Big Adventure's clothes on a model who more closely resembled them, sales to those bigger would grow even faster. Bernie intuition was partly based on sales gains to guys Roger's size that occurred right after photos from Roger's early modelling sessions were used in ads. Bernie tracked sales data closely, and a clear trend had appeared - Roger was much larger than the other models Bernie had used, and for the clothes that Roger had modelled for Big Adventure, the larger sizes - the sizes around Roger's size - had seen the biggest sales increases! Smaller sizes of the same clothes, modelled by thinner men, didn't see nearly the same sales bump. Hence Bernie's audacious 'ask' of Roger in the proposed employment contract.

Cindy, who had enthusiastically encouraged Roger's expansion to his current size, was thrilled that Bernie had made such an audacious ask - and was ecstatic when Roger when agreed to this condition! Cindy assured Bernie that she would do all she could to help Roger 'grow into' his contractual obligations!

Freed of the travel and stressful responsibilities of his old job, and with Cindy's enthusiastic assistance, Roger immediately set about fulfilling the 'personal improvement' part of his new modeling contract - an 'improvement' in his weight all the way to 700 pounds! Bernie had chosen that awesome 'ask' because he was convinced of three things - that Roger could handle that size, that a Roger that size would make an ideal promotional spokesman, and having a model that size would make all the larger sizes in the Big Adventure range fly off the shelves! Bernie's intuition told him that a man that size as a model wouldn't just reflect the reality of many large fat guys, but would serve as an aspiration to many men of smaller girth. Roger would become the man that smaller fat guys could aspire to be!

And Bernie's intuition would prove to be accurate - extremely accurate!

Roger's new role as Bernie's massive male supermodel - as an inspiration for fat guys to dress well and express their individuality - and as eye candy for lovers of larger men - required him to wear anything and everything in Big Adventure's expanding, upscale line of eye-catching, super stylish, yet rugged clothes for the sporty bigger man, the "Biggest Adventure" line.

Bernie consistently chose to feature Roger wearing the brightest colours and boldest patterns in Biggest Adventure's line in his advertising - ostensibly to show other fat guys that they didn't need to hide their gorgeous, lovable bulk in dark colours and baggy clothes. Of course, as with Roger's relationship with Cindy, it's not just the fat guys the clothes need to appeal to, but the girlfriends and wives who, in reality, influence or even buy most of the clothes for their 'big boys'.

Given all that, for Roger's time in front of the camera, only the most photogenic of "Biggest Adventure" clothes would do, including:

- the latest addition to the line, a suggestion of Cindy's - brilliant jewel tone tees, football jerseys, and sport shirts in snug, stretchy, and body-skimming cuts

- pants and shorts in spandex-enhanced stretch fabrics that ride closely over (and under) massive guts and cloak tree-trunk thighs

- heavy cotton rugby shirts in richly toned horizontal striping or colour blocking, in cuts and sizes to really emphasize the bulk of chests and shoulders. Naturally, these are paired with bright canvas rugby shorts and chinos to match (the heavy fabric made easier to wear by coordinating and contrasting stretch panels, of course)

- body-hugging athletic spandex pants, shorts, shirts, and jerseys in rich shades and dayglo colours - like UnderArmour for the massive (though of course not labelled that way!),

- and rugged workwear, including vests and jackets, work shirts and pants, carpenter's pants and coveralls and even overalls, in bright colours and vast sizes for comfort and practicality.


Big Adventure scored its attention-getting initial successes with clothing lines aimed at America's hot fat young guys - beefy football players, massive powerlifters, heavyweight wrestlers, amateur sumos, potbellied ex-college jocks, IT nerds, gamers, and radical gainers - and more importantly with the growing numbers of fat teens and even fatter twenty-somethings who wanted to look like their beefy football heroes, their favourite sumo wrestlers, or their favourite gamer or YouTuber. These, the fat poseur types and their girlfriends, flocked to Big Adventure's most radical lines.

Bernie soon backed up his choice of Roger as top model by hiring a small 'stable' of young SSBHM supermodels, including Coleman, a young cousin of Cindy, who at just 15 years old was already an awe-inspiring 400 pounds, and who Cindy had noticed was copying the more radical of the fashions his uncle Roger modelled.

With Coleman on board, flaunting his youth and phenomenal size in ads for Big Adventure's new "Teen Hero" line for ample teenage boys, Bernie saw sales expand even faster. As well as obvious profits for Bernie, this profited Roger too - Roger's 'hiring bonus' with Big Adventure had been stock options (as Bernie was cash-poor then), which increased enormously in value as Big Adventure's sales climbed.

Then, on top of the clothing line expansions, on-line sales portal growth and new stores Big Adventure was opening, Bernie decided to bank on the success of Big Adventure by filling another unserved niche. He decided to launch a men's fashion magazine featuring the larger styles and fashions that were making Big Adventure famous. The result was XLQ, XtraLarge Quarterly, "THE fashion mag for the larger man".

Initially, XLQ was a house organ, intended to be given away to regular customers - a beautifully laid out dream catalog/promotion piece, but with a few additional articles, columnists, and op-ed pieces to round it out. Bernie thought this would reinforce the 'Big Adventure' message, and he encouraged customers to take copies to share. The first issue's front cover featured Roger in "Indiana Jones" style, boots, sturdy cargo shorts, open-necked rugged canvas shirt, fedora and binoculars, standing on a large surveying the scene, while the back cover featured Coleman, in searing neon yellow striped spandex muscle top and electric blue shorts, big body and fat gut seemingly suspended in the air, lunging to spike a volleyball.

Within days of the release of the first issue, though, requests appeared for subscriptions. Many came from women - ostensibly wanting them as gifts for their bigger husbands/boyfriends/sons, while many others arrived from gay men wanting subscriptions for their BHM partners. While Bernie had expected his 'catalog' to be popular, this assumption that XLQ was a 'real' magazine and offered subscriptions caught him off-guard. He sat down with the crew of employees and friends who'd helped create XLQ, to see if they were prepared to greatly expand their publishing goals, by moving beyond being a house organ. Of course, they were, so Bernie advertised among the Big Adventure loyalty group for an editor, and hired from his customer base - another big guy, naturally. At first, a new issue of XLQ came out quarterly, but burgeoning demand means it's now bi-monthly - and growing.

XLQ has its detractors, of course, who refer to it as FQ - Fatso Quarterly. But, frankly, who cares what Richard Simmons, Paris Hilton or the US Surgeon-General think? Certainly not the women and men who read XLQ! Its mix of fashion-forward pieces, fat-positivism, sports reporting (on sports for the larger male, natch), news items on bigger guys in all walks of life and even male-focused and growth-focused recipes gives it a unique flair. Advertisers have been flocking to it.


Caution: this item is a work in progress