A big night out

The format is, by singles club standards, unexceptional. Shiny, happy people greet you at the door; a moonlighting truck driver, all rippled torso and micro bow tie, works the cloakroom; stunning hostesses in high heels and fishnets warm up the crowd; and all over the disco-lit surroundings of Duke's club near Liverpool Street, gaggles of smiling women meet and gossip while men stand nervously at the sidelines. Unexceptional but for one thing: every woman here is over size 16.

Welcome to Big Girls Paradise - a social club for big women and the men who love them. Plus the odd one who isn't too fussy.

"To tell you the truth," admits Michael, "I'm not especially into big women. But I've tried singles places and it's not going too well. I'm going to hit the big 4-0 in two weeks, I've been working too hard, not meeting the right people, and as you can see I'm no Richard Gere."

He scans the room morosely. The majority of women here look perfectly normal, just much, much bigger than average: they're wearing Etam cardies and size-18 jeans; classic slimming black trousers and shirts. Only the occasional brave, outsize goddess dangles abundant spare tyres from a PVC brassiere or faux leather strides.

"There are only two people who are doing worse than me," Michael adds with the resignation of the long-term wallflower. "Everyone but the Asian bloke and that guy in the corner is being grappled by a large woman."

He's exaggerating. Many women come here as half of a couple; others have partners at home; many are simply looking for a club where they are guaranteed admittance and can be themselves. When was the last time you saw a size 20 at Cargo, Soho House or even On Anon?

Angharad Rees (size 20) and Debbie Walters (size 16), striking Welsh twentysomething nurses, explain the appeal. "It's somewhere to go and not feel intimidated," says Angharad.

"Size isn't an issue," Debbie interjects. "You don't have to worry about sucking your belly in, or how fat your bum is, and you don't get groups of men laughing at you."

"I've pulled every time I've been here," Angharad adds.

"It's not about that," says Debbie. "Yes it is," Angharad insists.

For Chris Eaton, a 26-year-old guitarist, it's definitely about that. "I'm an FA," he says. "You've got BBW - that's Big Beautiful Women. And you've got FAs, or Fat Admirers. It's been quite a journey for me - my discovery of big women." (Tonight Chris will leave alone for the first time, he says, in two years.)

Many of the men here tonight do not define themselves as Fat Admirers, however, and Big Girls Paradise is by no means a club for fetishists. Martin Brear has come from Oxford with a friend just for the atmosphere - the merry hedonism and copious alcohol, vaguely reminiscent of a student disco. Richard Beatty, 37, a science writer, doesn't use the term Fat Admirer, but like many here describes the moment at which he acknowledged his preference for larger women as a "coming out" experience.

"I only admitted it to myself fairly recently," he says. "It wasn't because of social pressure, but because it seemed rather absurd that such a physical preference should be so important. But then, once you've accepted it, you're best off going somewhere where everybody's your preferred physical type - then you can choose for personality reasons, which is much more civilised."

With an estimated one in five British adults now medically obese, the statistics are increasingly stacked in his favour. Well established in the US, the Fat Acceptance Movement is taking off here thanks to the internet. Now the various UK BBW and FA mailing lists have thousands of subscribers. A startling number of people at Duke's tonight, from as far afield as Edinburgh and Southampton, met on-line.

Rosemary Duffy, happily married and a size 28, discovered the movement about two years ago. "I was chatting in the general chat rooms and then this girl in York opened up a place for big women to chat - our room's always full."

Lisa Howls and Carl Ablitt, both 25, moved in almost immediately after their first meeting outside cyberspace. How do his friends feel about Lisa's size (28)? "I think they know to keep their noses out," he says. "They all like her because she's got such a brilliant personality."

At Big Girls Paradise it is a matter of unquestioned fact that big women have great personalities. The word "bubbly", by some obscure semantic law never used of anyone below size 12, springs repeatedly to mind.

A couple of male revellers appear seedier than others - the suited gent handing out business cards to anyone who'll take them, for example. Novelty porn director? Escort professional? Or just covering all options in the dating game? He ain't saying. But John Smith, 42, a taxi-firm manager, is happy to give his take on larger women. "I like a woman with a bit of meat on her. It's a lot sexier than skinny women - look at Kate Moss."

John is one of the larger men here tonight, though he's beefy rather than fat. According to Richard, who is definitely slim, fat is a feminine issue. "I think of larger ladies as being more womanly because I think of curves as being more feminine - and I don't think being a large size suits men at all."

The BBW seem to agree. Come 3am almost every corner is filled by a disparately sized couple snogging joyously to that end-of-night classic, Layla. It seems strangely innocent. And strangely touching.

The next Big Girls Paradise party is on 23 February, at Duke's, 18-23 Houndsditch, EC3. Tel: 020 7723 9090.