Larger women lament across social media threads, blog posts, and YouTube videos on the scarcity of stylish, well-fitting pieces in larger sizes. Many brands don’t even carry larger sizes and when they do they’re the same garish, tacky and tasteless clothes.
Men in leadership positions who dictate fashion trends, such as Karl Lagerfeld, head designer of Chanel, said in 2009, “No one wants to see curvy women” on the runway. Plenty of mass retailers are no more enlightened: Under the tenure of chief executive Mike Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch sold nothing larger than a size 10, with Jeffries explaining that “we go after the attractive, all-American kid.”
Despite the endless outcry online with many news articles focusing on the lack of options, little data illustrates just how inferior the offerings made to larger women are compared to their thinner counterparts. I cataloged the number of silhouettes, colorways, and design details available in plus-size versus standard-size ranges across Barcelona-based brand Mango, which has a sizeable presence in the US shopping market.
While the author condemns using the term "plus size" because it implies a "normal" benchmark size for women's bodies, it is the term that the fashion industry uses to refer to this demographic, hence its usage in this app. Mango also has a specific category for Plus-Size women's clothing. Plus size will refer to US sizes 12 and above up to size 20 and letter sizes XL to 4XL. Regular size will refer to sizes 0-10. Although, a thing to note is that many dresses in Mango stopped at 8.
Hover on the carousel. Note how almost all the dresses' hems fall below the knee.
We see 97 dresses offered just in the short category. More than 10× the amount offered for plus-size women.
It reveals the brand's opinion on who is allowed to show skin.
As u/chubalubs on r/PlusSize puts it, "It's like the brands think the more garish, the better for distracting from the size."
The same kind of necklines, mostly v-necks, offered here. The silhouettes show a relaxed fabric around the bust with some gathering at the waist to create "shape."
Most of these dresses don't go above a US size 8.
Select a category to compare how often various features appear in Regular vs Plus collections. Make sure to checkout Embellishment and Detail to see the lack of delight in plus size women's clothing.
"Midi" appears frequently in plus-size but is virtually absent in regular clothing descriptions, while "short" is much more common in regular clothing descriptions.
"Fitted" shows twice as more in regular vs. plus and "belt” shows up 5 times more in plus size. Darts are foundational to shaping fabric around curves (bust, waist, hips). It shows up twice in regular size but never in plus-size. Regular-sized lines are explicitly calling out “fitted” silhouettes, meaning garments are meant to hug and contour the body.
Accessory as adjustment: Belts are often used to cinch or force shape onto an otherwise loose garment. Their prevalence in plus lines suggests designers rely on add-ons rather than integrated tailoring.
It is clear from these visualizations how plus-size women are not offered fun, trendy, form-fitting silhouettes thinner women do.
Zoe Hong, who is a fashion designer, illustrator, and instructor at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion universities, says,
There is a big hole in the plus-size market right now: there aren’t many brands addressing fat women, and so it becomes a vicious circle. Media portrays fat women as frumpy, fat women lack clothing options to look less frumpy, and the media then reinforces that limited reality. It’s not that fat women have less style; it’s that fat women have fewer options. You need to move away from the mindset where you only design with figure flattery in mind; instead, create a variety of silhouettes and let your customers decide what they want to wear.
Tim Gunn, former chair of fashion design at Parsons, and mentor at Project Runway wrote for the Washington Post :
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 silho uette, proportion, color and fabric. I’m not saying that it’s easy to do this, but it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of will.