“I love the American fashion industry, but it has a lot of problems, and one of them is the baffling way it has turned its back on plus-size women.” - Tim Gunn, design educator, author and co-host of Project Runway.
From the time we as girls are old enough to understand what “size” means, the world dictates how we should look and how we should feel about our bodies. The earliest I can remember being self-conscious was when I was about ten years old. I knew I was always “bigger” than most of my friends but I didn’t really care at that point: I had more pressing issues to tend to as a pre-teen. As I got older – and heavier – it became more of an issue. I found myself standing behind my “skinny” friends in photos and positioning myself so I looked thinner. Only recently have I come to terms that this is the body I’ve got and there’s so much more to what I want out of my life and who I am as a person than the size of my jeans. Or jeggings, rather, because jeans suck to be honest.
“In addition to the fact that most designers max out at size 12, the selection of plus-size items on offer at many retailers is paltry compared with what’s available for a size 2 woman.”
Now that my body and I are on halfway decent terms, the real struggle is finding clothes that affirm those warm and fuzzy feelings about myself. If you wear a size larger than a 12, which is technically not considered plus size but in my experiences a 14 is just as hard to find, you’re stuck with very limited options in most stores. Most of the time plus sizes or “misses” sizes are corralled into a back corner of the store that you can literally only find if you ask an employee to show you where it’s hiding. This seems quite odd to me, seeing as the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education reported the average American woman wears a size 16. They also noted that a size 16-18, thanks to vanity sizing, could mean that said women are wearing up to a size 20W in some brands. Talk about taking a real hit to a girl’s self confidence when she feels singled out for not fitting into the sizes she sees on the rack because smaller sizes look better hanging there.
“Have you shopped retail for size 14-plus clothing? Based on my experience shopping with plus-size women, it’s a horribly insulting and demoralizing experience.”
Another major issue with plus size clothing, other than lack of availability, is lack of style. I like to think of myself as a rather conservative dressing 20 year old, don’t get me wrong, but that doesn’t mean I want to dress like I’m 45+. Many stores only offer very mature styles that I don’t feel comfortable wearing around my thinner friends who are wearing more age appropriate clothes. If you check out JCPenney’s website, their selection of plus sizes is pretty extensive, spanning 101 pages for women and 20 pages for juniors, but if you look at just the first page of the women’s selection you see the stereotypical “big girl” clothes: solid colors, full coverage, boxy shapes. I do have to give some credit to JCP though because as you delve a little deeper, there are some trendier options that feel younger and sexier.
“This is a design failure and not a customer issue. There is no reason larger women can’t look just as fabulous as all other women. The key is the harmonious balance of silhouette, proportion and fit, regardless of size or shape. Designs need to be reconceived, not just sized up; it’s a matter of adjusting proportions. The textile changes, every seam changes. Done right, our clothing can create an optical illusion that helps us look taller and slimmer. Done wrong, and we look worse than if we were naked.”
If you’re familiar with the TV show Project Runway, you’re familiar with Tim Gunn. I love Tim for many reasons (including his frequent use of the word “viscera”), but this article he wrote for the Washington Post made me love him that much more. If you feel any type of way about plus sizes in the world of fashion, please give it a read. The article discusses how the fashion industry is broken in the eyes of plus-sized consumers and how no designers, high end or not, are willing to tackle the demographic of most American women. Seems backwards, right? Pushing away potential customers because you don’t want to reinvent the concepts? This is unfortunately how mainstream media thinks: the world doesn’t want to see plus size women. I beg to differ and say that all shapes and sizes have the ability to be just as gorgeous. Clothes should empower us and let us express our inner selves, no matter the number on the label.
