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1 J A P  Jun 8, 2014 11:02:00am

I’ve never understood this. It’s self-evident that there is a market that is not being fulfilled. When it comes to the high-end designers, I get what’s going on. They don’t make their money off of those ten thousand dollar gowns. They make their reputation and they make most of their money off of things like perfume, sunglasses and all those things people who could never think of buying the dresses buy. I myself have a bottle of Chanel perfume, but a Chanel suit… it’s so far out of my budget it might as well be on another planet.

However, when you’re talking about companies that cater to the mass market I’ve never understood why that happens. Of course, I wonder the same thing about high heels. I have a couple of pairs of “wedding and funeral shoes” and I’m always on the lookout for decent looking shoes with a low heel.

It’s often occurred to me that if I had capital, I’d start a clothing line that wasn’t exclusively “plus” size but whose target demographic was a woman about average size. I think it would be a financial success.

A couple of nights ago, I watched a documentary about Gore Vidal. At one point he was quoted as saying that the elites in the country don’t have to conspire because they all think alike. I think what you have here is that the sort of people who have sufficient capital to start a mass market retailer don’t have the mentality to be able to take advantage of an obvious hole and an obvious need.

I too have aged and have had this problem recently, not with fashion clothes, but with active and outdoor wear at places like REI. I know that my size is actually under the average dress size for a woman in the U.S. and I see women larger than I am around me all the time. I have many times wondered what they do. But that’s more than half the population, it’s a huge market.

2 Eclectic Cyborg  Jun 8, 2014 11:09:19am

My wife is in the same position. We really need proper universal standards about what is actually “plus size”. Most of the models I see in “plus size” catalogs are not anything remotely close to what I’d consider “plus sized”.

One of my wife’s biggest issues is that at most retailers it seems selection really drops once you get past the 1X size.

3 calochortus  Jun 8, 2014 11:51:52am

I’ve had this problem all my life, because I’m a tall woman, and therefore, even when I was young and thinner, and quite normally proportioned, I was big. Back in the day, you could go to “tall shops” or places like Sears had tall sizes.

No more. Retailers are all going after the same demographic and I’m not it. They don’t want larger sizes to be associated with their brand. They want young, svelte and hip.

However, at the same time, clothing sizes have lost any meaning they ever had. When I was in high school and weighed 155 lbs I wore a size 16. Now I’m about 20 lbs heavier and when I tried on a pair of size 14 pants at Coldwater Creek a couple years ago, they were huge on me (except for being a bit short…) Some other brands I’d be a XXL. Who knows any more?

Thank heavens I enjoy sewing.

4 KerFuFFler  Jun 8, 2014 1:06:32pm

Lots of designers don’t want to “tarnish their brand” by having their clothes seen on larger women.

As much as this attitude distresses me, I have come to realize that I do the same thing to myself; with fabric that I really love, I think to myself, ” I’ll only use this fabric after I’ve dropped a few pounds.” So, I have lots of ugly, boring “fat clothes” and several pieces of beautiful cloth. LOL through the tears….

The most pernicious aspect of the anti-fat fashion world is the self loathing it induces in the majority of women (and some men too, but MOSTLY women).

5 calochortus  Jun 8, 2014 1:53:04pm

re: #4 KerFuFFler

Make yourself something beautiful now. If you drop a few pounds you can take it in. If you don’t you’ll be as beautiful as ever-and with a great outfit.

6 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!  Jun 8, 2014 2:25:52pm

OMG. Ok, long post coming up. I got very ill about 7 years ago and due to the operation and the medication I ended up gaining 35-45 pounds for a while. During this time, I not only saw the behavior of some men change towards me, but the clothing for larger sizes was ridiculous.

I have been in the fashion industry on and off for some years now and it’s not just the sizing that’s a problem, but the styles and cut as well. The cuts for slim shapes do not work for curvier, rounder shapes. They are taking the fashion of narrower bodies and just making it bigger, without taking anything else into account. For instance, putting a boxy shirt that stops right at the hips on a shapelier woman makes her look bigger. For rounder, larger, curvier shapes, you need a longer line on the shirt that hits below the hips. It also needs to be nipped in at the waist to give the curvy shape proportion. Those small changes make a world of difference.

I also recommend all women go and get your bra measurements done by a professional. Victoria’s Secret offers this service free to any woman that comes in. Most women find out they are wearing a bra that is too big or small for them. Once you get your right sizing done, you will not believe how much better you look in clothes.

In fact, my user name on here was born of my heavier time. I never got upset about being over weight. In fact it felt empowering to me in some strange way. I was as confident then as I am thin. But a lot of my friends who are larger have always had self esteem issues. Watching the Watchers one night, I told my husband you always see thin, in shape super heroes (the male ones as well). I told my husband we need to have a confident, beautiful, female super hero who wears her weight with pride. I called her Cankles Mcellulite. Then I realized, without any one knowing the back story, it just looked like I was making fun of fat people. Choose your user names wisely my baby lizards. :

7 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!  Jun 8, 2014 2:32:17pm

re: #4 KerFuFFler

Just wanted to let the beautiful curvier ladies on here know, you may think you look awful, but there are a lot of men coming “out of the closet” who prefer larger women.
There are so many dating sites now, that cater to men looking for BBW-SSBBW’s all across the USA, Europe, Australia, Canada, even Japan.
That means, there are a lot of guys who are looking at your cute Buddha belly or wide hips and thinking “What a Goddess”.

8 Eclectic Cyborg  Jun 8, 2014 2:51:19pm

re: #7 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!

Just wanted to let the beautiful curvier ladies on here know, you may think you look awful, but there are a lot of men coming “out of the closet” who prefer larger women.
There are so many dating sites now, that cater to men looking for BBW-SSBBW’s all across the USA, Europe, Australia, Canada, even Japan.
That means, there are a lot of guys who are looking at your cute Buddha belly or wide hips and thinking “What a Goddess”.

Which is, in fact, something of a throwback, since larger ladies used to be the preference.

9 KerFuFFler  Jun 8, 2014 2:54:42pm

re: #5 calochortus

re: #7 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!

Thanks for your supportive messages. Fortunately I’m a pretty happy person with a husband who loves me. I do tend to be hard on myself, but nowadays I only tend to have “wardrobe crises” when we visit the in-laws. My MIL has always been slender and one SIL “struggles” to try to get up to 100 pounds. My other SIL is quite slender too. And of course, all three spend oodles of money on clothes, not to mention cosmetic “procedures”.

LOL, I suppose the three of them feel lots of pressure to look “good enough” too if they are willing to go under the knife and/or get botox.

10 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!  Jun 8, 2014 2:59:36pm

re: #8 Eclectic Cyborg

Absolutely! I remember reading about some young British and French officers, visiting Colonial America and complaining that the party they went to did not have many “plump” girls. They were all too skinny and homely.

And during the 1800’s, the top “Gaming houses” (whorehouses) that catered to the wealthy men, had a strict rule that a girls weight could not drop below 165 pounds if they were 5’4!

11 calochortus  Jun 8, 2014 3:56:11pm

re: #6 Keep Texas Prisons Rapey!1!1!1!!!

Also, note to clothing manufacturers: when you grade up those patterns to larger sizes, don’t just make everything x% bigger. Our shoulders really don’t grow all that much. It’s not the ’80s any more and no one wants to see their shoulder seams half way down to their elbow.

12 Floral Giraffe  Jun 8, 2014 7:18:12pm

It also sucks that the manufacturers charge more for larger sizes. ‘Cmon, the fabric isn’t that expensive!


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