Jane Bingum from 'Drop Dead Diva'

If this article could spark a retail revolution, so be it. Let's force change so women in double-digit sized clothing aren't relegated to shapeless garments.

In Lifetime's Drop Dead Diva, premiering Sunday, July 12, the cliched battle of the sizes is waged: dumb, size-double-zero blonde versus brilliant, size-18 brunette. Both women die young on the same day. The blonde, Deb (Brooke D'Orsay), breaks the rules, and her soul winds up in the body of the brunette, Jane (Brooke Elliott), who gets a new lease on life.

Jane dresses in an understated, professional manner. Her office wardrobe of black suits and white blouses looks more like uniforms than outfits.

"She primarily wears the suits because she is a lawyer, and so it is still very lawyer-conservative as opposed when she is Deb, a (size)-double-zero L.A. model, which is very different," Elliott says.

"So much of our worth is placed on what we look like," she says. "If you don't look like a certain package, you're not worth anything, and so little importance is placed on are you a good person, a loving person, fun to be around? OK, you have these other qualities, and are you engaging those?"

Costumer Michael Clancy is ever mindful that the character appears in court.

"Her whole approach to the character was, more than anything, to just have it be true to a professional working woman, an everyday working woman who does that kind of work," Clancy says. "She needs to have outfits that are both sober and conservative enough to be appropriate for court and stuff that is flattering and nice as well. There are very firm parameters where you can go with how she can look."

He shops in New York, where he is based, as well as Los Angeles and Atlanta, where the show shoots.

"She very rarely wears one outfit from one place; maybe she will have a jacket from one manufacturer and a skirt from another," Clancy says.

While shopping at Saks in Los Angeles, Clancy learned that although the store did not display the merchandise in the larger sizes, it could be ordered online. He buys many suits and blouses from Marina Rinaldi, which makes finely tailored, classic pieces for women sizes 14 to 24.

He also buys suits from New York Lafayette, which specializes in lovely suits and dresses.

He finds blouses at J. Crew. Clancy says he also shops at Macy's, Bloomingdales, Nordstrom and Ann Taylor.

"I am constantly looking, partly because the challenge of dressing someone like Jane or any woman in plus sizes tend to be really matronly," Clancy says. "It's tough to find clothes for women in their 20s. ... One of the benefits of shooting in Atlanta is that they do carry the bigger sizes."

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