Umm...

[shipperx]

Anyone else bothered by their calling a size 12 "Plus-Size"?

Excerpt from Stylist.com:

Despite the fact that the average American woman is now a size 14, it seems like the fashion world is less plus-friendly than ever. First there was the Abercrombie & Fitch PR disaster, where CEO Mike Jeffries said women over a certain size "can't belong" in his stores; now Lululemon is being accused of shunning plus-sized customers, hiding their size 12s off the sales floor.

You don't have to go very far to see the disparity in a tangible way: A quick trip to staple e-commerce site Net-a-Porter, for example, shows that there are currently over 2,000 options in a size 6. Click on a size 12 and that number drops to just above 200. It's a common experience across the retail space, which means retailers are leaving the average American woman (like myself) to scrape together a wardrobe. But retailer ModCloth recently reported that the average plus-sized customer spends more than her straight-sized counterpart–so what gives?

"There's a [judgment placed on] plus sized from the straight sized market saying, 'We're not going to give you the square footage on our sales floor because we don't want you in our store,'" says Eden Miller, who designs her own plus-size line called Cabiria.

"They're saying it doesn't sell when in actuality there's not enough diversity in the offerings and it's shoved in a back room," she explains further, referencing department stores who place their plus-sized clothes between their home goods and children's departments. {...}And the more established lines that offer plus-sized on a mass-market scale aren't advertising it. "One thing that would vastly improve visibility of the growing plus-size market is if designers who currently offer plus-sizes invested more of their resources into publicizing and marketing their lines," offers Nicolette Mason, blogger and contributing fashion editor at Marie Claire.

Comments

[rahirah]

Even with vanity sizing, that does seem weird. If I were in perfect shape, I'd be a 12, and when I was a 12, I was in no way overweight. :P

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I know. Even when I'm at what the BMI index says is the lower end of the range for my height/frame (which, admittedly, I haven't been since 1996), I'm STILL a borderline size 12/10. Anything less than that and everything (pants, sleeves, waist length) is too damn short.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

And just try finding petites in anything larger than a 12. None of the petite specialty stores went higher, and neither did the "fancy" department stores. Apparently it's a physical impossibility to be both short and fat.

Now that I telecommute I really don't buy clothes anymore, other than t-shirts from places like threadless.com and teefury.com, and jeans from Wal-Mart. But when I did shop, Coldwater Creek was extremely all-size friendly and also totally my taste. I was talking to an employee there once, and she said their CEO was a size 22 and insisted that they serve women of all sizes. No idea if they still do, though.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

They do, as do FLAX Clothing, Tianello, Click by CMC (if you can find them - they're the beautiful unicorns of XL clothing), J. Jill (they do tall & fat, which is me to a T) and, I think, Land's End and LL Bean.

I spend my clothing money almost exclusively online now. Screw brick and mortar retailers.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I've liked J.Jill sweaters a lot.

And (related note) LLBean makes good bed sheets!

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Wish that more companies would have a broader range of sizes. It really bugs.

And re: Coldwater Creek, that sort of store is why I tend to insist on trying a physical article on first. Coldwater Creek fits 'in theory' but their cuts are not for the long waisted. The size 'fits' but never hits me in the right places. (It's one of those things where my sister and I tend to tease one another in that, in 'theory' we wear the same sizes, but our shapes are not the same (she's short waisted, I'm long waisted) so things that look right on her, look odd on me, and vice versa. Empire waists in particular look bizarre on me, even when they're cute on others.

Talbot's has Women's Petites (but they are also super preppy so they may not appeal...though they do have nice pants, jeans, and cords).

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

I think it's just another form of something called these days - fat shaming . These corporate heads can't comment on someone's color or sexual preference but it's still fair game to comment on size.

And the fact that marketers even consider a size 12 as "fat" is just idiotic. And frankly, you'd think they be delighted to sell to a market that's looking for attractive, well fitting clothing.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Anyone else bothered by their calling a size 12 "Plus-Size"?

Good grief. Words fail me. Presumably they believe women look better emaciated?

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

None of this surprises me at all. In size-conscious Los Angeles, Orange County and the Bay Area, the "most desirable customer" for higher-end department stores and boutiques falls between a size 2 and a size 8. 10s are considered fatsos, and anyone above a 10 doesn't exist.

Even in middling department stores in California, plus size sections are hidden in the back, in faraway corners, etc. Petite sections, however, are pushed to the forefront.

And yet, when I go into ANY store - low-cost, middling OR high-end - the sizes left on the racks are always 2 to 8, while the "big sizes" get snapped up immediately. You'd think someone would take a clue from this, especially if they worship money. But no.

I say: go online. The internet doesn't care about one's size and will be happy to accommodate you.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I tend to not trust sizes unless I can try them, though.

That's another issue -- there are no uniform sizes! Everything varies by brand.

Right now the selection of pants that I wear daily range from a size 12(jeans) to a size 16 (dress pant). That's a pretty significant range based on nothing concrete whatsoever, other than that's what that brand and/or cut happens to be.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

It's the same here even in the same brand. I tried some clothes on last week. Some trousers were a 14, others a 16.

Our sizes are 1 size smaller than yours, just to add to the confusion online. So those 14's I tried on would be, I think, a US 16.

And finding Petite's are a pain here too.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Add in that sometimes the size difference across the Atlantic is 2 rather than 1 size. Confusing.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Last jeans I bought were Gap "32." I have no idea what that's supposed to relate to. I'm guessing the equivalent of a size 14... (as that's the current size the majority of my pants. Though I love my Levi's for lying to me and saying 12. :)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It's like going into the Anthrologie Sale racks. Everything in them is a size 0 or 2. They stock hoards of 0's and 2's... but how many people buy them if that's what always winds up on the clearance racks in back?


I've personally taken to doing a fair amount of shopping at a consignment shop near my home. You can luck up on some suprising finds and, because they tended to have been consigned by actual people, it's mostly real sizes (aka, not just 0's)

[molliemole.livejournal.com]

I've got a Sears Roebuck catalog from the 1940's, and the smallest size in ladies' clothing is a 12. Not the largest size, the *smallest*. How times have changed.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Anyone else bothered by their calling a size 12 "Plus-Size"?

Yes. Very much so.

Apparently the Kate Moss look is still in. Go figure.

Although it should be noted...that they've been changing the size of things. Size 12 is actually larger than it was 10 years ago.
And every style is different. In short, it's very hard to know what size is going to fit without trying it on.

And people wonder why I despise clothing shopping. That and shoe shopping. Ugh.

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

That "varies by brand" -- YES. And even then, it's not 100%. For a while this summer Costco was carrying Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, and I bought several pair because I liked the way they fit. HOWEVER, the ones "Made in Egypt" fit the best. "Made in India" were at least a size too small; "Made in Kenya" were a little tight, and "Made in Sri Lanka" were okay, as well. All the same size and the same brand.

Women's clothes. Jeez.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. And the cut difference is HUGE. Anything cut "curvy" or "classic" I can wear at LEAST one to two sizes smaller than anything (god forbid) listed "Skinny" (actually "skinny" anything in pants look horrid on me even when they techinically 'fit'. "Skinny" was not designed for anyone with thighs.