Addressing Plus Size Inclusivity
Story by Paije Maas | Photos by Peighton Bortle | Design & Modeling by Katie Jo Stewart
It is 11 a.m. on a Saturday morning and you have a very exciting shopping day ahead of you. After finding a parking spot, you walk up to the shop’s doors and step through the threshold. Your heart begins to pump as you scan the store and see the wide variety of clothing options available. There are racks of spring dresses with floral designs and denim jeans with fringe. New prints and fabrics are screaming to invade your closet space.
Your eyes lock on a nude off-the-shoulder dress and you begin to search for your size. Your fingers briskly move through the tags, hoping to find your size, but you notice it’s nowhere to be found. The largest size available is a size eight. After searching for your size throughout the entire store, you notice that they don’t carry it. The manager says that is their largest size in the store, and you leave feeling discouraged.
This is something millions of women across the world experience when shopping. For some plus size women, they begin to feel that their size is not as represented as standard sizes. Katelyn Richardson, a junior Food and Science Nutrition major, relates to this. Richardson says she always asks herself, “is there a wide variety of styles as well as sizes for all body types?” when shopping. Her expectation is that there should be.
Sarah Smith, a junior Apparel Textiles and Merchandising major, shares a similar expectation. “I don’t consider my mom plus-sized, but it’s sad to hear that I can’t treat my mom to clothing from my job because they don’t offer her sizes. I really hope to see an expansion in the plus-size community for clothing,” she says.
Some businesses are moving forward to break the stigma behind plus-size clothing by providing a more size inclusive shopping experience for their customers. Megan West, the owner of Claim Clothing in Ellensburg hopes to spread the message of body positivity to all who shop in her store.
“We try to provide a range of styles and sizes for as many people as we can, she says. “When we first opened our shop, we offered a wide range from small-3XL, but the merchandise did not turn over quickly and we couldn’t sell through seasonal items. Ultimately it wasn’t making much sense for our small shop to dictate so much inventory dollars to this department.”
This is a recurring issue for many small store owners. They provide size inclusive products but those products never sell and it in turn causes them to lose money.
Fashion Department Director and Professor of Apparel Textiles and Merchandising, Andrea Eklund touches on the business side of owning a clothing store. She explains, oftentimes the reason behind a store not carrying size inclusive clothing is primarily due to their floor space, their demographic and how much money the store has to purchase the clothing.
Eklund says that plus-size clothing is her area of research and her passion. While many small clothing stores do not carry plus-size clothing, she explains that there are tons of clothing companies geared directly towards plus size women. “Torrid is an amazing retailer who is so size inclusive, their sizes start at a size eight and I believe go up to a size 30. It does cost a bit more due to the extra fabric needed, but it is worth it.”
While there is still a divide in the fashion world between plus size and standard sizing, Eklund believes we are moving in a direction towards more size inclusive models on the runway. “There are people like Christan Siriano, who makes clothing for women that are plus size and his reasoning is that they are women. The average woman in the U.S. is moving towards a size sixteen and I think more companies are finally starting to realize that,” she says.
Companies are indeed realizing this after Vogue released their October 2020 issue with Lizzo on the cover. Lizzo is a three-time Grammy award winning singer, and during her shoot with Vogue she was named the first plus-size black woman to be featured on the cover.
Ashley Graham is another plus size influential celebrity that is paving the way for size inclusivity. She is the first plus-size model to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and she has since created her own clothing line.
There is no doubt that this gap in equality for plus-size individuals is getting more attention. These influencers have shaped the way fashion companies see women and how they create their clothing. The fact that they are creating size inclusive luxurious formal wear may be a sign that change is on the way.
