The plus size market is a very large market. But, it has always been overlooked. Today there are many stores that carry plus size clothing and many online stores that dedicate themselves to the plus size market. A couple years ago, there weren't a lot of stores that were dedicated to plus size women but now, almost every fast fashion store has a plus size section. Why is that? Well, stores like Lane Bryant, Ashley Steward and Torrid generate a lot of customers because these stores are dedicated to the plus size market. The average plus size customer, are willing to spend a little extra money on the clothes that they want.

The Quality

The quality of the clothing that are sold in Lane Bryant, Ashley Steward and Torrid are very good that's why the prices of the clothing are a little expensive. That's one reason why plus size customers are willing to spend more money on their clothing.

Fast Fashion Stores VS. Dedicated Plus Size Stores

Fast fashion stores such as Forever 21, H&M, Rue 21 and Charlotte Russe are now selling plus size clothing. The clothing quality of clothes in these stores are not good. The reason why the quality isn't good is because the clothing isn't made to last long and since these are fast fashion stores their turnover is higher than the dedicated plus size stores.

The Clothing (Itself)

The clothing in the fast fashion stores and in the dedicated plus size stores are somewhat different. The clothing in all the stores is great and trendy. But the fast fashion stores are dedicated to a younger audience, so their clothing is much different. The dedicated plus size stores are targeting a more "mature" audience. But, the design concepts seems to be the same in all of the stores.

The Fit:

The fit of the clothing in the fast fashion and dedicated plus size stores are a little bit different. The fit in the fast fashion stores seems to run smaller. Which, some of the fast fashion stores don't really have plus size it;s just that their clothing runs smaller. The dedicated plus size store clothing seems to have to right fit for the right body type. The mix-up, I think is that some fast fashion stores don't really carry plus size clothing. The clothing looks plus size but, the clothing is made smaller so you have to get a bigger size. Which, makes it look like the store is selling plus size clothing.

Advertisements/Models

The biggest way to attract customers into stores is advertisements and commercials. With plus size market, I think this is very important to the customers. It's important to the plus size customers because they want to see how the clothing, fit and look on the models. Commercials are important as well. One of the biggest commercials I saw was a Lane Bryant advertising their bras. This commercial got a lot of bad reviews because they had all plus size models, which I thought was great. But, the advertisement received backfire. For example; a fast fashion store with plus size, had a model who wasn't plus size modeling their clothing. The store received a lot of backlash from this incident, and they had to fix the problem before they lost their customers.

Plus Size Model

Thank you reading my article this week! Next week, I will be talking about how social media has influenced fashion today.