The Sizing Thing 
Musings from the Editor’s Chair, ElegantPlus.com

As the Fourth of July holiday weekend heats up, it’s one of those times of year when fashion retailers dazzle us with rock bottom sales, discounts, coupons and bargains as they clear their racks of spring and summer apparel to make room for the new “Back to School” styles beginning to arrive.

Savvy shoppers beware. The plus-size apparel market is in flux. Excitingly so, as more and more manufacturers cater to women with curves. We celebrate when junior and misses size lines that serve our thinner sisters expand their offerings into plus sizes.

Some fail miserably. Why? There are more women in the United States who wear a size 14 or larger than those who wear smaller sizes, yet there is more fashion on the racks for smaller sizes. Why? It defies common sense that any line serving this yet to be fully tapped market should fail. But they do, as the recent announcements by H&M and J Lo attest.

I had a recent shopping experience that reminded me why some of those items land on the sale racks and some apparel designers try and fail to reach the plus size market. Some of it is clearly marketing - or rather the lack of marketing - as the “shame” of carrying plus sizes causes a retailer to push them into dark back corners of their stores. If your target customers don’t even know that you carry larger sizes, how do expect your line to succeed? The fashion industry can be accused of tiresome high school cliquish behaviours at times as the article referenced above discusses.

But, my shopping trip to a local department store highlighted another problem. The failure to use truly plus size fit models when designing a plus apparel line. It isn’t just about style, although that is problematic too….frumpiness often creeps into larger styles. (Even baby-boomer grandmothers don’t want to look like doddering old grannies. Hello apparel designers - frumpy is out with all but the very oldest generation ….. and even my 86 year old grandmother doesn’t like to look frumpy.) If a designer either makes the error due to lack of experience in this market, or thinks they can save money by cutting corners they are wrong. Simply sizing up from a Size 6 fit model for all sizes right up through a size 26 is going to fail miserably.

I was reminded of this fact when my bargain hunting radar spied a sale rack full of gorgeous jackets in the body conscious short, tailored styles big this year - in a beautiful floral print, no less. Twenty dollars in a high end department store! Steal!! I grabbed two, found a lovely blouse to go under them and went off to the dressing room. And found out why there was an entire bargain sale rack of what should have been one of the hottest items of the season. I couldn’t get my arms in those jackets no matter how hard I tried. The body was tailored properly for a larger hour glass figure - although I’m not sure how an apple shaped plus woman would have fared, but even with some stretch to the fabric my arms looked like stuffed sausages and my circulation was cut off. Suddenly the explanation for an entire “bargain” rack of hot ticket items was crystal clear. The style was cool. The fit was not. And the consumer walked away again and again and again until there were below cost mark-downs and a department store begging Goodwill to take it away. If an executive doesn’t understand this market and the design issues, s/he could very well conclude that plus size women don’t purchase trendier styles or that their straight size line does not appeal to full figured women. And the experiment they decided to run for a season or two fails.

What are “fit models”? you might be wondering. They are models who are hired not for their beauty, so much as for their measurements and proportions which are used to fit clothing designs and develop accurate patterns. It is also helpful to the company hiring them if they also have a background in fashion design that enables them to communicate fitting problems when they are trying on clothing samples during the design process. Because a plus size body isn’t just larger, it also has some different proportioning like arm sizes, it’s important that plus lines aren’t simply sized up from straight sized fit model. Within the industry, the average plus size fit model must meet exact measurement standards that usually fit an evenly balanced 16W or 18W figure, depending on the preference of the company and have the height of about 5′7″.

For the consumer, sizing is confusing enough - with vanity sizing, women’s, junior plus, brand-special sizing - without the added problems caused by ignoring the use of a plus size fit model for the line. The results are patently obvious to any of us who understand what is going on. Gone are the days when a full figured consumer is delighted just to find anything in her size - a situation that began to change in the 1990’s. Now there is a full fledged demand for quality, fit and style. In a way the plus specialty retail chains are at an advantage, since they already understand fitting issues that straight size designers might miss as they size up. But even they have had to try to undestand the bodies of their customers better. Last year, plus retailer Catherines used advanced body scan technology to research the body shapes of its customers and tailor their in-house labels to better meet consumer needs.

On-line clothing shopping is growing in popularity for both smaller size and plus size women. The convenience, a greater range of colors and styles even for the same brick and mortar store, and the ability to find exactly what you want without filling an entire weekend trudging from store to store is bringing web-shopping to the fore. Fashion copywriters are getting better at describing garments including information like fabric content and fit types (eg. loose fit, close fit, tailored fit, etc.) . Color swatches are more often included. And truly savvy apparel sites include individualized garment measurements and not simply generalized sizing charts, and the newest web shopping aide to hit - shopping by body shape .

Much of this sizing help relies on you, the customer, to understand your own body and measurements. It’s always a good idea to have your body measurements on hand, tucked in your purse or sitting next to your computer for quick reference. Have a friend help you take the measurements with a flexible seamstress measuring tape easily found at any local fabric store, Walmarts, grocery stores and convenience stores. Having them will make for a more pleasureable shopping experience all around as you undestand and compare the size charts of various manufacturers.

So enjoy those holiday bargains that still have an entire summer’s worth of wearing time in them, just remember to try things on if you can or make sure you understand the label you are purchasing. All plus size apparel fits are not made equal.

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