Vancouver Plus Size Boudoir Photographer

What is Plus-Size Boudoir,
and Why you should try it

Boudoir photography is known for empowering folks to embrace their bodies and explore their sensuality, and that is always the goal at our Vancouver Boudoir studio regardless of your shape or size.

One of the reasons I started to offer boudoir in my Vancouver photoshoot studio is I came to see through my own experience, how truly transformative and liberating this type of experience is. Boudoir can help build your confidence, and remind you of how beautifully badass you are, in the skin you are in.

If you’ve always wanted to have a boudoir photoshoot, and you identify as plus-size, this blog post is for you! I will answer all your questions and help you see why no matter your shape or size, you will be welcomed in my Vancouver Boudoir studio with open arms!

But first, I want to to please turn the volume up on this message and repeat after me:

f*ck yes boudoir is for me! I will look hot af in my photos and feel badass that I did this for myself!

Feel good? Awesome, let’s dive in!

Plus Size Boudoir – what is it?

Simply put, “plus-size boudoir photography” is a form of intimate, sensual, and artistic photography that is specifically designed to highlight the beauty and confidence of folks who identify as “plus-size” or “curvy”, but what does that even mean? We get into that in a moment.

At Mateus Studios our Vancouver Boudoir photoshoots focus on celebrating body diversity, breaking societal beauty standards, and capturing intimate moments that reflect self-acceptance, power, and vulnerability regardless of size. The goal is all about self expression, self acceptance and a celebration of all bodies!

Why have a Vancouver plus size
boudoir photoshoot?

Let me guess, you have wanted to have a boudoir photoshoot for quite some time, but you are nervous, and concerned about finding the right studio that will celebrate you for who you are, as you are. Well my friend, let me share a few reasons why I think you should come in for a boudoir photoshoot with me!

1. Boudoir is a confidence booster

One of the most common things I have heard from previous clients after their photoshoot is how the felt so dang confident!
The idea of being in front of a professional photographer, often in minimal clothing, can bring up all the nerves and feelings of intimidation, I’ve been there! Once you are here getting into the groove, the time will pass and your focus will go from feeling nervous to feeling on top of the world in all your glory!

The excitement continues when you see the final images and witness the grace, beauty, and power captured in each shot, it can completely shift your perception of your body and your self-worth.

Plus-size boudoir sessions highlight your curves – not hide them! Your final boudoir photos will reveal the strength and beauty in your body that may have gone unnoticed for years, I know you may not believe me now but the proof will be in the photos.
The final result is not just a set of photos—it’s a reminder that you are worthy of love, celebration, and admiration as you are.

2. It’s an act of self-love and body liberation

In a world where beauty standards are narrow and restrictive, plus-size boudoir photography stands as a powerful act of body liberation. Plus-size boudoir challenges the notion that beauty only comes in a specific size or shape. A plus-size boudoir photoshoot is a proud declaration that all bodies are worthy of love and attention, no matter their size.

By participating in your own boudoir shoot, you are saying yes to embracing your body—so called ‘imperfections’, and all.
Taking that bold step in front of the camera is about recognizing that you are more than just your size and that your worth is not determined by the number on the scale. Can I get a heck yes!!!

3. Boudoir is a celebration of your sexuality

One of the things I say like a broken record is this: boudoir photography isn’t just about how you look; it’s about how you feel, and let’s be honest who doesn’t want to feel sexy af! A plus-size boudoir photoshoot allows you to reconnect with your sensuality without shame or judgement. It can be hard to feel sexy in a world that is constantly shoving things and messages in our faces to make us feel like we cannot be sexy unless we are a certain size, what a load of BS that is. This experience can, and will, help you reclaim your sexuality on your terms, allowing you to define what makes you feel sexy.

4. Plus-size boudoir challenges toxic beauty standards

Challenging beauty standards is no easy feat, but it fires me up and gets me so excited to know that together with my beautiful clients we are out there showing that all bodies are beautiful, worthy of love and adoration.

I truly believe that by participating in plus-size boudoir photoshoot, you’re helping to challenge harmful societal beauty standards that prioritize only certain body types, certain skin colours, and a very heteronormative look – but not here!

More and more, the world is recognizing that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, and you can be part of this change by showing up not only for yourself, but also for others, inspiring them that accepting our bodies as we are is indeed possible.

I feel so grateful to be part of a growing movement of amazing humans out there celebrating body diversity and inclusivity, giving the middle finger to toxic beauty standards, one badass boudoir portrait at a time!

5. It’s super badass, need I say more?!

Seriously though, taking time out for yourself to explore your sensuality, honour your body and love on yourself is pretty damn radical, because as we have already covered we are always up against toxic beauty standards that are trying to keep us all down. I think it’s pretty badass to say f*ck it, and allow yourself to be witnessed as a full expression of yourself, taking up whatever space your heart desires!

Ready to book your Vancouver
plus-size boudoir photoshoot?

Friend, let me say with ALL MY HEART that I truly hope that you will be accepted here in my studio, as you are! You don’t have to change a damn thing about yourself, you don’t have to feel like you need to hide parts of yourself and you don’t have to worry about being judged.

My goal as a photographer is to help guide folks towards accepting ourselves, all while smashing toxic beauty standards one beautifully badass portrait at a time! I have shared this before but I will share it here again because it is 100% true. My own mother really struggled with her body image, always on yo-yo diets and never feeling beautiful or good enough as she always felt ‘fat’. Growing up as a kiddo this broke my heart, and I would sit on the sidelines watching her, sad and so wishing she could see what I saw in her. She passed at the young age of 49 to breast cancer, and while I was never able to help her see what I saw, I used those lessons and turned them into an opportunity to help others see what they may be missing in themselves.

What do you say, are you ready to join me on this mission? I’d love to welcome you into my studio.

~michele xo

Bonus content

This entire concept of “plus-size” is so confusing to say the least, so I went digging for more information around what it even means and thought I would share with you in case you might be interested to try and figure it all out too. My conclusion: all these definitions have been created to control us and keep us feeling like we are not beautiful, so f*ck them, let’s take the power back, together!

What size is considered “Plus Size”

I was curious to find out what size is considered “plus size”, because let’s be honest sizes are all over the place and if were up to me we would just haves sizes, and ditch the “plus” part. Truthfully I look at people and see you for who you are, not what size you are, but since I went down this rabbit hole trying to see what the interwebs would show me I thought I would share.

So I googled plus size clothing and here’s the Wikipedia explanation:

Plus-size clothing is clothing proportioned specifically for people above the average clothing size.
The application of the term varies from country to country, and according to which industry the person is involved in.

Like what the heck is “average size”?!

Further down my google search, I scrolled to the first 4 websites listed and each has a different ‘size’ determining what is plus size. The first site says plus size is ‘16 and beyond‘. The next says ‘size 18 and beyond‘, then ‘size 14 or above‘ and lastly ‘size 12 or 14‘. What?! None of it makes sense.

Plus Size CONFUSION

The labelling of clothing sizes drives me bonkers, it’s beyond confusing. After XL we get XXL. So is XL the same as 1X and XXL is 2X? Nope. Above we determined that XL is a 16, so XXL is an 18. Those are apparently considered plus size. But then there’s 1X – any idea what size body this would fit? According to google, a 1X is a ‘plus size 14/16’. The difference is that this sizing 1X, 2X, 3X etc is “made wider and with more room in the arms, hips, thighs, butt, and stomach areas. To accommodate larger plus size bodies.” Ok, that makes sense I guess. But does it really make sense, not to me but what is a girl to do!

Oh and then there’s the fashion industry, talk about infuriating! One would assume that “plus size models” would all be a minimum of size 16. Right? Wrong in most cases! The average “plus size” model is actually mid-size, anywhere from size 8-14! What?! Clearly there is still more work to be done to have fair representations of all bodies, and I am here to make that happen!

What Does This all Mean?

I’m sharing all of this frustrating and confusing info around what the heck is “plus size” to say that at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what size you for you to enjoy a boudoir photoshoot here at Mateus Studios.

I mean look at the images of all of these bodacious babes and there’s more photos in my gallery. We don’t know what size clothing these women wear (except Ms.R and she gave us permission to share). We have no idea if they consider themselves plus size or not. What I do know is that they are all stunning and these photos show exactly that. Beautiful women. Amazing bodies.

I invite you and look forward to having you in my studio to show you your beauty and your magical essence, through my photography.