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Fashion’s Plus Size Dilemma
By admins | March 11, 2009
Diana Blackwell via Flickr
Recently an article in the LA Times was published regarding the lack of fashionable clothing for plus size women. While this article has many good points, and perhaps can be wake up call to retailers, there are a few issues we would like to address. One of the key complaints of this article is that plus size clothing is hard to find and is not fashion forward, but rather matronly. They specifically mention Kohls and Wal-Mart and complain that their plus size apparel is frumpy and designed for “farm wives.” Well in speaking with colleagues who design plus size clothing for those retailers, the story we received was much different. In a time when manufactures and designers have been fighting to stay afloat and survive, and not just in this recession, but over the last decade, most of them would sell any size apparel in any style if it meant turning a profit. One unhappy plus size designer told us, “We tried a more trendy, vintage, Urban Outfitter’s style screen-tee program for our customer once and it bombed compared to our traditional boxy T’s with Santas and kitty cats on them! Believe me, I’d much rather be designing fabulously hot clothing but it’s the fugly stuff that sells. So you tell me.” One of our contributors worked at a company doing fashionable contemporary women’s bottoms for high-end department stores while another division in the same company supplied plus size bottoms to Wal-Mart. As some of you may remember, Wal-Mart decided to go more fashion forward about 2 years ago, so this company decided that they would take the same fashion forward designs and sell them through their plus size division to Wal-Mart. Of course, some adjustments were made to fit the customer properly and for fabric in Wal-Mart’s price-point, but the design was consistent. Well, what happened? They didn’t sell. The manufacture got stuck with almost 100,000 pieces, so what could they do besides absorb the enormous costs? They shipped them back to China and had the factory embroider butterflies and florals onto them and guess what? This time they sold. Bottom line is, if the customer is not buying the product, designers and manufacturers will return to making what does.
It is understandable that trendy plus size women would be upset by the lack of product available, but we would just like everyone to take a look from another perspective. Now, why would any designer or manufacturer take a financial risk for a customer that is not buying? Even the LA Times article made brief mention of this, “Women in this demographic have learned to make fashion not a priority.” They also mention that there should be more stylish plus size stores for them like the Gap’s Forth & Towne. However, they did not mention the fact that the Gap lost $40M on this enterprise, when after 18 months the fashionable plus size customer failed to show up. With the apparel business struggling, every single garment that gets produced needs to be saleable for companies to be profitable. Now is not the time to be targeting a customer who admittedly, “Hates to shop.” The article states, “The fear of fat is so ingrained in designers and retailers.” We would have to strongly disagree and say the real fear is in not making your bottom line.
However, there are a lot of valid points in this article. For instance, that fact that retailers are hiding larger sizes in the back is just ridiculous. The reluctance to use models of varying sizes on the runway or magazines does a disservice to all of us. Equally absurd are high-end designers who refuse to expand their size scale for fear it will sully their image. We say, get over yourselves! Our favorite part of the whole article was the reference to Miuccia Prada refusing to sell clothes over a size 10. Well, have you seen Miuccia? Girlfriend is not exactly a size 2!
We certainly know that there are fashion forward plus size women out there. The question is, are there enough of you and will you show up to buy? So far the juniors market has had some success in carry stylish larger sizes and opening fashion stores like Torrid. Even Forever21 has seen that the young plus-size customer is buying so they are launching a new line, Faith 21 for larger sizing. Of course, they are a younger market so expect the cut to still be slim. The real challenge is the true women’s market for those 30 years and up. Our opinion is that customer needs to come back to the marketplace, find the stores or online retailers that cater to you and frequent them. The more profitable an indie designer or small brand becomes for catering to an under served market, the more likely the big boys will take notice. Business is tight right now and retailers and brands need to see that going after this customer is a financially viable move.
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Topics: Opinion, designers, fashion industry, production | 29 Comments » 
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March 12th, 2009 at 9:02 am
I think one thing that was failed to be addressed in both this, and the original article, is marketing. I’ve been plus sized my whole life; I’ve always shopped at gap, kept up with fashion magazines, and I hadn’t heard anything about Gap’s “Forth & Towne” line, about Wal-mart’s new ventures.
Putting the money in to producing the product is one thing– but you have to put just as much money in to marketing it, and to the right constituencies, in order to make it profitable. If you want trendy, plus-sized women to buy it, you need to get press & advertisements in the publications they are going to read. You need to have that full page ad in the trendy magazines, otherwise they aren’t going to know. You need to get that fashion coverage in the magazines, on ads.
It’s entirely possible that they did, but it seems just as likely that they didn’t. It’s easy to say, “We made it & it didn’t sell,” but there’s more to profiting that just a good product.
March 12th, 2009 at 10:21 am
[...] Fashion’s Plus Size Dilemma – Fashion’s Plus Size Dilemma; A different perspective on the plus size apparel industry. [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Well done, as usual. It’s great to hear the business side of fashion for once instead of just consumers perseption. Thank you ladies!
March 12th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Great point Ashe, it’s possible that the companies very much set themselves up for failure with these lines by not marketing. It’s not that people didn’t like the pieces, but that they’d given up on the stores selling them.
Marketing is (almost) everything.
March 12th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
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March 12th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
It is so annoying the way they have to create ‘new lines’ for plus size. The last thing a plus size girl wants to do is shop somewhere different than everyone else. How hard is it to make items in bigger sizes (old navy does it) and keep it with the rest of the sizes. I mean isn’t 55% of America and Canada overweight? (what a sad fact!), they need clothes as much as the minority regular people. It’s just such a huge market I don’t understand why it is ignored.
March 12th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
what an interesting dilemma, how to get the plus size consumer comfortable in store and confident to buy? and an interesting point about marketing, Ashe Mischief. perhaps a chain wouldn’t want to advertise plus sizes. and what about plus size sections? i would find it a little embarrassing to be shopping them,i agree w/eyeliah ^. Great topic as always, and thanks for the congrats, guess you read the pr releases?!
March 12th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Ok I’ll say it, maybe people are just too fat! The original article says the average american woman is 162 but fails to mention she is also 5′4. That is not right, it’s incredibly unhealthy and is more important than whether or not the fashion industry is serving them. You mention that the junior stores are successfully target this customer, but is that really a good thing? When a third of our children our obese maybe the fashion industry should not be encouraging this. I think the plus size customer should stop complaining, put the fork down, and go for a run! Sorry if the truth hurts!
March 12th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I’m with Brooklyn Diva. I think there are a few healthy plus-size women (who are tall as well as girthy) in every bunch who truly are healthy, but I suspect those are the ones who do shop at Torrid and seek out the designer styles. Then there are the rest. If they can’t figure out that calories equal weight gain, it doesn’t really surprise me that they can’t figure out style either.
BTW, I am barely 5′3 and 135 lbs. I realistically could afford to lose a few myself. Media and society pressure women, but any woman should be more concerned with medical stats, which say the same thing – Thin is better – but with a lot more backing.
The bit about kitties and butterflies selling on plus-size clothing made me LOL, by the way. Informative post! I had no idea those things were actually market-driven!
March 12th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
[...] 39thandbroadway – Fashion’s Plus Size Dilemma; A different perspective on the plus size apparel industry. [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
The reason Forth and Towne failed was because it wasn’t just plus-sized but ranged from size 2-20 and was for the Chico and Coldwater Creek set. And for J and Brooklyn Diva, overweight people know they are overweight and want to change, but they still want to look good. You act like losing weight is easy it isn’t. I have tried Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, and everything else under the sun. I have been fat since I was 10. For me its genetic. No matter how hard I try I lose 20 lbs. and gain back 40. Try being a little more sensitive and stop being ignorant to a problem you know nothing about.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Wow! I guess we weren’t the only ones with something to say. So great to hear from all of you! Okay, we’ll try to address some of your issues.
For those of you who mentioned marketing. Our blog is mostly from the designer’s and manufacturers’ perspective not the retailers. The marketing of a product generally, though not always, falls on the retailer. Which is why we did mention they needed a wake up call. Much of the apparel in department stores, specialty stores, and even Wal-mart comes from manufacturers who design and produce the clothes. We often do not even have marketing departments and certainly have no say how a retailer chooses to promote or not promote their merchandise. We are not that familiar with that side of the business, but would guess that they have budget restraints as well and can not afford jumbo ad campaigns for every new product. We do know that both the Gap and Wal-mart did advertise, and the fashion forward direction Wal-mart took was a huge campaign including their first ever Vogue spread. It will be interesting to see how Forever21 markets their new line though.
Interesting to hear your thoughts on plus size lines being separate, some labels do and some do not. It is more a technical challenge though. Not to bog you down with to many details but a design can not be just made larger after a certain point. Sizes within the normal scale can easily be graded up and down but after a certain point the proportions have to change and occasionally even the design. This is more difficult and often why the lines are kept separate, although it is certainly doable.
Regarding the weight issue, health is definitely a factor. There are a lot of reasons for weight problems but we can all agree that our country, as a whole, is heading in the wrong direction on the scale. The fashion industry is awash with health issues; we have anorexic models dropping dead on one hand and ever ballooning size scales and body forms with fat rolls on the other!
Lastly, a little food for thought, while a large number of women may be of a certain size, that is not the same as a large number of shoppers. Fashion is a business and it gears it’s product to the customer not the population. For example, men make up 50% of the population but are 50% of stores, clothing, magazines etc geared towards them? No because they don’t buy in the same quantity as women.
Basically what we seem to have is a chicken and egg situation with the plus size customer vs plus size clothing, and our hunch is until the economy improves the fashion industry will not make the first move.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
You guys really do give a unique business perspective, which is much needed. Great site.
If you are a size 22 you have bigger problems than to bitch about where to buy designer jeans!
March 16th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Great, thought-provoking post!
March 16th, 2009 at 8:43 am
Kudos for a stellar article on a topic that doesn’t receive half the coverage it deserves, from any angle. Alot of really good points made, let me add that the stylish plus-size shoppers I know, myself (6ft, 160ish) included, don’t shop for fashion at Wal-Mart. Period. I’m also going to agree with Ashe & Barry, marketing that actually reaches your target audience would have done the retailers/manufacturers a world of good with regards to their new lines. You can’t just toss out a few ads, even in Vogue, and expect the market to turn in a matter of a few months.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:16 am
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March 19th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
My own perspective in all this from a seasoned shopper.
1. Plus size lines don’t sell because the majority are fairly ugly. Blunt? Oh yes, but true. There’s always unfallibly a flaw in skinny women designing clothes for plus sized girls. They pick patterns they THINK will look good, cuts they THINK flatter, and styles they THINK women will love and then pout and wonder why they don’t.
Plus sized women don’t want your flowy tops nor your inexplicably tight across the tummy tops. We know what we want, what looks good, and how we want to look to others.
2. Cost is everything. If a plus sized women can get it for cheaper and better elsewhere then she won’t be stopping by your store. One of the reasons Torrid does so well is because they are more brave and do sell things most designers shy away from. Bright colored pants? Oh no! Corset tops? My God! They know most plus size women are comfortable with their bodies and don’t wish to be relegated to the ‘cute t-shirt’ field. Secondly their prices are fairly great and they also have fairly constant sales.
3. If you’re not selling…then the problem’s with you. Sorry to be blunt about this but it’s true. Admittedly there is a divide in appearance across a certain age range. Women who grew up feeling ashamed of their bodies will probably flock to bedsheet shirts with puppies and flowers on them. Women of the younger generation who have generally been treated well despite their weight want to be slightly more fashionable. Anyone in advertising and buisness knows you can sell anything so long as you go about it the right way. If you’ve got a ‘great’ product but it’s staying on the shelves then you’re doing something wrong.
April 6th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Just to make things clear to y’all, I’m 5′3″ and the likelihood of me getting to 135 is about the same as the likelihood of Clay Aiken finding the right girl. So this whole “OMG people should lose weight!” thing is all well and good but it kind of ignores the fact that some people are doomed to be fat unless they become prisoners of war.
First off, are there any women above a size 10 on most retailers’ design teams? I’ve got a feeling that a size 12 would be able to make better plus-size clothing than a size 2. But that’s just me.
Secondly, why did Old Navy go online-only for plus sizes? I can see how some stores would be pretty small and not have the space, but you can’t tell me that the three-story store on State Street in Chicago or the five-story flagship in Manhattan can’t spare a corner for larger jeans.
Finally: What kinds of focus groups does the industry use, and where are they located? For larger women, I’d suggest using focus groups in Chicago and in the south as well as in New York and Los Angeles. (Hell, I’d suggest that for all sizes, but God knows Chicagoans and Southerners are fatter than average.)
April 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Finally: I don’t know where the Industry advertises when it’s promoting new stores, but for the plus-size market fashion magazines aren’t the whole picture. I’d suggest plus-size fashion blogs, short television slots on Lifetime and TLC (during the makeover shows, not the “500 Pound Lady”), slots on “Oprah” and “The View”, teen fashion magazines (hook’em while they’re young), YouTube, viral marketing…
And also: How do we get some natural fibers?
April 6th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
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April 6th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Well as probably the only one commenting so far who has designed plus size clothing, I say bravo to 39thandbroadway for bringing a dose of reality to this subject. They just hit on the tip of the iceberg but did it well. What is astounding to me is the ignorance and nastiness I see from some of the plus size consumers commenting here. The idea that I must look a certain way in order to do my job is appaling. So by your standards only men should design menswear and what children should design childrens clothing? This is a proffession which I went to college for, I do not need fat rolls to know how to cut a pattern for them any more then I need a penis to spec the rise in mens trousers!
April 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
@Kathryn: No, but there are generally some men involved in the design of menswear.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
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April 10th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Ok, the posts about people putting down the fork just pissed me off. I am fat and I am not healthy (Type 1 diabetes) HOWEVER, why should I stop thinking about how I look or where my clothes come when all I want to do is try to live in the body that I have right now? Instead of obsessing about what I may or may not look like 5 years from now or however long it takes to lose a significant amount of weight, don’t you think it would benefit me to try and love what I have to work with now? I deserve clothes, just like anyone else. I deserve everything that any skinny broad thinks she deserves, and there isn’t anyone on this planet, fashion designer or not, who has the right to tell me otherwise. I’ll drop my fork when you drop your biased attitude.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
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May 1st, 2009 at 11:58 pm
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May 7th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
I am a size 4 and I have covered the Plus Size industry for the past 4 years as an editor. This article is spot on and every point these ladies make is valid and truthful. There are a lot of aspects that go into designing plus size clothing a lot of reasons why they are not made. There are additional costs of hiring a plus size fit model and “minimums” required to actually produce a line that retailers are not meeting. Additionally, the plus size customer has not had the offerings that the straight size girl has had and therefore, the general population of plus size gals are not comfortable testing out new bodies that the straight size girl wouldn’t think twice about. I know this last statement is a generalization, but look at the vintage tee-shirt program that they tried to initiate.. need I say more.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:30 am
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October 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
keep up the good work..