My dorm room came with a curse. It looked normal at first with two beds, two desks and mirror. But my roommate and I soon discovered something alarming. Our mirror was not just any mirror: It was a “fat” mirror. Slightly convex, the imperfection in the glass would distort and widen any reflection.

My girlfriends are all horrified when they come over and catch a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. They’ll usually make a face, then nervously start tugging on their jeans and shirts, despite my assurances that it is the mirror, not them.

It’s not a surprise that girls are obsessed with the reflection looking back at them in the mirror. You can hardly open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing about either the “obesity epidemic” in America or the skinny-mini bodies of Hollywood and the fashion industry.

The fashion world has been schizophrenic on its handling of these issues. Features on loving your body the way it is run next to articles about gastric bypass surgery, which are mere pages away from photo spreads of bone-thin models. Fashion magazines, Web sites and TV shows are filled with spreads on how to dress for your body type. I know I’m not the only one who has looked in the mirror trying to figure out if my body fits the prototype of pear shape, boyish, curvy, petite, skinny, or top-heavy.

The fashion industry’s body hypocrisy has been highlighted in the media ever since the anorexia-related deaths of two Brazilian models in the past year. As a result, designers and editors were forced to address the issue. Some cities such as Madrid even banned models with unhealthy body mass indexes. As a result, propaganda about loving your body and how to dress right has inundated fashion how-to and tip columns more than ever as the fashion world attempts to hide its obsession with being thin.

Fashion loves skinny. Despite all the talk of “love your body,” you never see high-fashion clothing on curvy models. Nope, those clothes will be draped on a frame that isn’t just thin, but emaciated. And emaciated is not generally a category offered up in the “best clothes for your body type” section of magazines.

Me? I think you should embrace whatever body type you have. Here are some of my disagreements with what fashion magazines have to say:

• Even if you’re having a fat day or you gained a few pounds recently there’s no need to dress like you’re going to a funeral. Black may be slightly slimming but if you love color don’t avoid it for the sake of hoping that other people think you look a teensy bit thinner. I’d much rather see someone happy in turquoise than hiding in all black just because they think they are too heavy.
• I recently read that dressing entirely in one color can also make you look thinner. Please don’t do this. A friend of mine dressed entirely in khaki one day. He didn’t look thinner – he just looked like he was going on a safari.
• Forget about pear-shaped, boyish, curvy, short, apple-shaped, etc. I always skip the “how to buy the best jeans for your butt” section in magazines because they baffle rather than enlighten me. Buy what looks good and feels good to you when you are in a store. Trying to categorize your body just won’t work. Most of the time I conclude that my body cannot be labeled as just “short” but also falls into about three other categories as well. And who knows what “apple-shaped” means anyway?

The fashion world sends confusing messages about body image. Ignore all the hype and dress how you like: If you’re happy, nobody cares if you have big hips or tiny boobs.

And be grateful every day that you don’t have a fat mirror in your room like I do.