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Fat-bottom girls once made the rockin’ world go round, but all bets are off during this recession. Plus sizes are being, well, downsized, as lines are being cut from production and stores. A Crain’s article describes the carnage:
Well-known brands such as Ellen Tracy have eliminated or downsized production, and department stores like Bloomingdale’s have reduced space for the lines or dropped them altogether. In the spring season, Ann Taylor eliminated size 16 from its namesake and Loft divisions. It now sells sizes 16 and up only online.
But if the average American woman weighs 164 pounds and wears size 14, why are plus sizes being cut? According to the article, plus size clothing is more expensive to make as opposed to regular or petite clothing. There’s more fabric involved and special fit models are involved. Also, less plus-size women (pun intended) are buying clothes than regular and petite size women. Plus-size purchases are down 8%, whereas regular-sized purchases are down 2% and petite purchases even less (pun intended AGAIN). On top of that, when larger sized women do buy clothing, they generally spend less.
Naturally this sucks for the larger ladies who relied on now-defunct brands like Sigrid Olsen and Elisabeth by Liz Claiborne, may they rest in peace. However, plus-size women will be able to find many brands no longer carried in stores online, which is apparently larger women’s preferred shopping medium anyway.
I snickered when I read this article, because as an extremely petite woman (5′0, 104 lbs), I’ve been dealing with lack of clothing options my entire life. It’s a world where there is virtually no such thing as buying clothing off the rack at a store, unless I want to pay $30 extra, wait two weeks and have it tailored. Throw in my size 5.5 feet and the fact that most shoe lines start at size 6, and you’ll start to get the picture. Bigotry against petite sizes is one of the last acceptable prejudices left on earth, so excuse me if my heart doesn’t quite bleed over the plight of plus-sized women.
The petite lines of Banana Republic, Ann Taylor and J.Crew have been and always will be predominantly online, so if plus sizes have had even a year or two in the stores, that’s more than us shawties ever got. I’m not gloating about the fact that more plus-size women will have to deal with the annoyance of fewer store and online clothing choices, I’m merely saying: Join the club of marginalized sizes. There’s quite a few of us, and we’ve been here for a while.
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This was a really great piece, Marin. It never occurred to me that it might be difficult to find petite sizes — I feel like I’m always seeing petite sizes in the stores. But maybe that’s just because I always get jealous and think “I wish I were petite!” Grass is always greener, right? ;)
You know what really sucks? Trying to find clothes as a man.
If you don’t live in a major city its difficult to find any decent male clothing that isn’t a suit. None of the standard sizes of shirt or blazer fit me well. I have a 26″ waist which is apparently kind of narrow for men and my shoulders are actually pretty broad, so all of my blazers and nice shirts have to be tailored. I don’t care so much for casual clothes, so all my t’s and such are kind of baggy around my waist.
Brooks Bros. offers an “Athletic Fit” that is more tapered in the waist. They don’t just have suits – plenty of nice business casual and even causal wear there too. Their clothes are def. more expensive, but the sales bring them down close to normal prices. And the quality is great – my husband has dress shirts that he bought 6 years ago that still look great. The less expensive shirts from that area were donated some time ago due to fraying, fading, etc.
I don’t work for BB nor do I have stock in their stores — I’m married to a distance runner who is always trying to find nice work clothes that fit his broad shoulders, narrow waist and comparitively huge runners’ legs. He was psyched when he found the BB option. Hope this helps!
I started reading this piece thinking, “Great! Another story about how hard it is for plus sized women to find clothes…” I am so glad I kept reading to the end!
Petite sized clothing is just as hard to find in Australia – unless you want to shop at stores designed for 14 year old girls (which is not really my thing!)
Buy a sewing machine. Just sayin’
My mall has tons of petite clothing. Most of the plus size stuff is at discount stores like target and JC penney.
I don’t think you realize how small she means by petite. Most stores carry average sized clothing as in sizes 4-14. Petite women can be sizes 00-2, and it is not practical for stores to carry these sizes. If you go in to classy women’s clothing stores in your mall you won’t find size double zero. And most women do not want to wear clothing from the juniors section of Kohls, especially to the office. The only malls I can imagine having a larger selection of petite clothing would be ones in areas with a high Asian population, just because Asian women are generally very petite. I’d say just about every mall I’ve ever been to has carried average sizes.
For serious. Anyone ever tried to buy jeans at Forever 21? For them size 8 is like the new size 4.
so true!
I’m not saying I don’t sympathize with petite women as a larger woman myself, but at least you HAVE the option to have it tailored. It’s not all that possible to buy a pair of pants that are too small and fix them so that they fit properly.
I would also love to see the source on larger women preferring to shop online. I personally HATE that I can’t get a single size 20 in Old Navy anymore, and instead have the pleasure of paying $7 shipping each time I order online. Even better, I get to pay $6 of that again should I need to return anything without exchanging. And you all know how easy it is to gauge if something will fit by a teeny tiny picture on the screen, or if the color is right.
And have you actually seen the plus size stuff at other stores? It all typically looks like Grandma, with the exception of Target. But their in-store selection is very limited too.
And before anyone criticizes me for being large, shut up or I’ll eat you.
I concur. I’m anywhere between a size 12-18 depending on different stores but at the same time I have a tiny waist in comparison to my love handles and my breasts. Finding clothes for someone with my body type is near impossible. And I totally agree, shopping online for stuff sucks. Your can’t tell what it looks like how it will hang etc. Also I have been living in Canada for the past 5 years for my job (was originally from the UK) and there are maybe 4 stores in all of toronto that sell anything in larger sizes. Thats it. So I have to resort to buying mens clothes at the god forsaken American Apparel because they are plain and no one can usually tell that it’s a mans shirt/sweater.
Clearly we all need to be between a size 4-10 with a rectangle sized body so that we can buy clothes in regular stores.
I concur. More fabric to tailor down = certainly not easy, but easier than what most plus-sized women face. sizes 0-2 have become more and more popular in higher-end chains like banana republic, where you can find smaller sizes that are fantastically professional at the office. Try wearing a leopard print muu muu to your job at Sun Microsystems and you’ll feel me.
I”m not being a hater – I feel universally bound to all women who are challenged with finding their size. (my shoulders are a broad as my father and my inseam is longer than my 6′4″ boyfriend, so I feel many size-ist pains) but this article seemed to be bitter and gloating while claiming it was not.
You don’t need to welcome plus-sized women to your sarcasm ‘club’. Sheesh. They’re already there.
p.s. vintage stores. what I wouldn’t give to shop in vintage stores, oh size 0’s and 2’s.
Sharon, I loved your last line! You made me laugh out loud.
Sorry. No pity for you. How about try being tall? I’m 5′11″ and 135lbs. If I do find clothes that are long enough for me, they’re too big. If they fit well in the body, they’re too short.
If a pair of pants are too long you can go to the tailor and have him or her hem them. Can’t exactly ADD fabric on to pants/jackets/shirts, etc. And, many departments have petite sections. How often do you see “tall” sections? If they do offer “long” for various items, they are gone in 2 seconds.
Okay, I take that back, shopping is frustrating, and I can sympathize. But “petite” sizes or “plus” sizes aren’t the only difficult options to find.
Rant done.
I am right there with you. Not quite as tall (5′9.5″), but I am very short-waisted and have ridiculously long legs. Finding jeans that are long enough is just about impossible (I have one pair of 27×36 jeans, and have never been able to find another) – I live in skirts, because it’s easier. Another gripe I have is with so-called “long-length” pants, which often end up being 33″ inseam, as opposed to the 31″ regular ones. Sorry, STILL just way too short. I’ve given up on clothing manufacturers, and am now just hoping that someday, my average-height and proportionate mother will give up on trying to buy me pants.
Yes!! I’ve noticed that stores were getting rid of their “tall” and “long” pants before they even considered getting rid of their plus-sizes. Meanwhile, I’m in a profession where I have to wear pants to work and that forces me to go and buy $55 dress pants from the one store in the mall that makes them long, only so they can be destroyed in 3-4 months. Petite, plus, tall, hardly anyone is average size anymore. Pretty soon we’ll all be naked. :/
Glad it’s not just me! haha.
Omg yes Jen, Jen and Jamie :P I’m 181cm and 58kg and no pants ever fit, if they are long enough, they go out in the thigh area, or they fall down at the back. Shirts are always too short, and jumpers never have long sleeves so I have to buy size like, 16, and in tops I would be a size 8! (Australian sizes).
Least if you’re fat you can do something about it..
my sister is almost 5′10″ and has the same problem. I feel bad for you tall-ies. I’ve gone shopping with her a bunch, and it’s impossible to find pants that are long enough.
I worked at JC Penney, and the petite section was the exact same size as the “Woman sizes” section (I guess JCP thinks that sounds better than just saying “plus size”).
This just reminds me of an episode of The Office where Angela reveals that she has to buy clothes made for large colonial dolls because the clothes at Gap Kids are too flashy :P
LOL.
Ha! Loved that.
When I read stuff like this I am really really pissed.
Because you know, I am Older. Very Much Older. And when I was a kid, there were only about half as many people as now, and they didn’t have the advantaged of computer assisted design and cutting, and yet — and yet!
There were more sizes commonly available, women’s Levis had three measurements (waist, hip and inseam), combination last shoes (heel one size, toe another) were commonly available. And now, well, it’s just too hard! They really can’t manage! People who aren’t average in size will just have to suck it! I’ve seen it from both ends of the scale with various husbands and children, and I wonder when we will get the improvements that are obviously possible. Luckily for me personally, I don’t wear clothes. I wear men’s jeans (from BiMart) and mens’ shirts (from thrift stores), and mens’ Converse hi-tops, and I just don’t need to worry about it any more.
Oh, did I mention that fabric stores have for all intents and purposes, just gone away? They’re for quilters now. Which is nice, but back when I was an office lady, I made my own clothes from a much greater assortment of fabrics than is now available, even on-line. The future isn’t turning out to be all it was cracked up to be.
I don’t know where you’re looking but you can get awesome fabric online! Especially off ebay where it’s cheaper. It sucks that fabric stores are like gone. But from a fellow seamstress, the fabric IS still out there.
agree w/abbi
i’ll shamelessly plug denver fabrics i buy from them all the time, theyre great w/shipping well priced and good quality
Alright, so people are frustrated all across the board! Petite, plus size, tall, shortwaisted, why don’t designers realize that there are more of us out there?
Because they OBVIOUSLY hate us. XD
I know this is a bit different but it makes me think of women with larger feet. I wear a size 11, sometimes a 12. I can usually find my size at Payless, but the cuter styles sell out quickly as they typically only get a pair in.
Most popular stores don’t go beyond a 10, so you can imagine how happy I was when places like Target began carrying size 11… The only problem is that the 11s fit like 9.5s. Why don’t they just make them true to size rather than pretending that they ‘carry’ more sizes!? I have the same issue when I order shoes from places like Delia*s. I feel for many of us because it’s frustrating being any shape or size other than average height, shoe size, weight, etc!
YES YES YES. it’s so hard! i have big feet, size 10 occasionally, but mostly 11, and they are wide. i have to squeeze my feet into target 10’s, and the 11’s are perfect in the width and just a bit too long, but i manage. i just end up buying men’s shoes a lot.
a salewoman once told me that i should just shop at a drag queen clothing store, because there they carry sizes in pumps and high heels up to 14. too bad i don’t want clear high heels.
That is so completely true! My stepdaughter wears size 10-11 shoes, and she’s 11. We’re already having a hard time finding shoes for her, I don’t know WHAT we’ll do when her feet get bigger! My sister-in-law wears a men’s 12 (about a women’s 14, I think), and pretty much her only options are sneakers or flip-flops. I am a shoe person, and this makes me sad.
From the other end of the spectrum – I wear a size 5.5 I think, in American sizes (a 3 in English). I’m 19 and have to frequently shop in the kids sizes. Shops normally stock about two pairs of a 3, and they’re gone within minutes.
On the plus side, my mother and sister both wear the same size as me so at least at home I can triple my footwear.
Damn it – all this talk of shopping has made me want to go out and buy something. I’m so easily influenced =P
Many of you ladies must live in remote areas or something because I live near a major city and see petite and large sizes everywhere. The Banana Republic near me sells “00″ in both regular and petite and I know that Club Monaco store has very tiny sizes too as well as Bebe. As for larger sizes, every major department store here has a “Woman” department that is rather large. Macys, Lord and Taylor and JcPenney all have them. If you still cannot find what you want every major city has a decent fabric store that carries designer patterns so you can make what you want. Talbots has a large “Woman” selection in their stores so maybe try there?
Now if only someone would do away with those dam low rider jeans already!
re: low rider jeans –
Something on which we agree!
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
While I understand that the thought counts, these options (even in a big city) are not often enough for larger women. I live in a pretty big area and have a hard time finding plus size clothing. As others have already said, most plus size sections seem to be based on the selections my grandmother has in her closet. I’m 21, not 61. I don’t live in sweater sets and turtlenecks. There are a few options out there, i.e. Torrid, Lane Bryant, Talbots, but the selection is limited and over priced. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to pay $45-$65 dollars for one shirt. And $120 for a cotton dress just will not cut it for me. Usually this doesn’t bother me, since I don’t shop at Banana Republic, Anne Taylor, or J. Crew (since they usually have nothing larger than a size 16) but it is very difficult. I’ve been trying for three years now to build a professional, work-appropriate selection of clothing but it’s very difficult. I may buy one pair of pants that fits correctly without any ill effects like a muffin top, only to not find another one for six months, by which time the first has been worn so much it’s no longer in the condition to wear to work. With so many complaints I’ve heard in the last few years there has to be a solution that I hope comes soon.
My main problem that I’ve encountered lately is the sizes that pass for plus size now. Recently Forever 21 launched a “plus size” line of clothing called Faith 21 (and I use the term plus size here loosely) which is laughable. The sizes are XL (11/12), 1X(13/14) and 2X(15/16). I thought this was unbelievable until I realized that Forever 21’s L is a 11/12, the exact same size as their XL. Now someone explain to me who at Forever 21 thinks a 2X is a 15/16?!?!
OK, I too am ridiculously petite, at 5′1″ and 90ish pounds. I know all about how hard it is to find clothing that fits. Pants and skirts are the worst, I’m 00 but the sizes always start from 0. But come the hell on, who are you trying to kid? That’s the least of our troubles, it SUCKS in many other ways to be “plus-sized,” and I don’t envy anyone who has to deal with the shit that people give you for being bigger. Your post reminds me of this: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/#butbut
In fact, your very post IS an example in this one particular tactic.
That was a very interesting link – thanks for sharing.
“Bigotry”? Seriously? Not carrying your clothing size does not constitute bigotry. Being denied a job, health care or the ability to adopt a child because of your size (all things that happen to fat people) – that’s bigotry.
We can all get on board with the crappiness that is American clothing retailing. It sucks for pretty much everyone (even the size 6s – ’cause some of them have big racks, others have long legs, etc.). But let’s get real: larger people face life-changing discrimination on a daily basis; shorties do not.
THANK YOU. I’ve been waiting for another commenter to express this sentiment.
The difference is, I think there are more plus-sized women than very petite women. I’m in between plus-size and “regular” sizes, and it’s a minor irritation that I have to shop in two different departments. That’s why I love Old Navy. They don’t have different sections; they just put all the sizes of a style on the same rack. So if I want to try on a 12 and 14, I can find them in the same place.
My biggest problem is finding a bra that fits correctly. I have never found a store that carries anything larger than a DDD cup. That means I have to order them in several size, wait a few weeks to try them on, and send back most or all of them if I didn’t get lucky and pick the exact band/cup size combo that I need. Even in catalogs and online, I can’t find under-wire bras in my size, or any colors other than beige, white, black, and sometimes pale pink. And the bras always give me a strange shape. Molded-cup bras are just impossible to find, so I have to wear a tank top under every shirt to hide the seams, even in the middle of summer. We’re the ones who need good bras the most, but we get them the least.
THANK YOU!!!! Why are big breasted woman supposed to wear hidous bras? I DO not want to look like a nurse in the 40’s with the cone shape and ugly support. I hate bra shopping because 1/b cups have suck sute fabrics and fun bright details and then ddd gets whie,black OR for “varity” beige. Really??? That’s it? I found 1 store one time that carried my size in cute fabric and bought every different kind they had. hello red lace!
Marin!
Omg. I feel you. :(
I myself am very petite and it is ridiculous to find anything that fits right most times.
The only jeans that look decent on me are the laguna skinnies from Hollister and I have to get a 1S and those are still too long and get loose.
Designer jeans actually look awful on me and finding a dress that fits perfect? fuhgetaboutit.
P.S. Don’t call me “Short[y]” and I won’t call you Fatty. >:O
I concur. More fabric to tailor down = certainly not easy, but easier than what most plus-sized women face. sizes 0-2 have become more and more popular in higher-end chains like banana republic, where you can find smaller sizes that are fantastically professional at the office. Try wearing a leopard print muu muu to your job at Sun Microsystems and you’ll feel me.
I”m not being a hater – I feel universally bound to all women who are challenged with finding their size. (my shoulders are a broad as my father and my inseam is longer than my 6′4″ boyfriend, so I feel many size-ist pains) but this article seemed to be bitter and gloating while claiming it was not.
You don’t need to welcome plus-sized women to your sarcasm ‘club’. Sheesh. They’re already there.
p.s. vintage stores. what I wouldn’t give to shop in vintage stores, oh size 0’s and 2’s.
Leopard print should be illegal.
I’m sorry, but the plus sizes in JC Penney is just sorry. I’m 21, and I’d like to wear clothes that look like my age!
Oh please petites, enough with the sob stories. Hemming and tailoring is easy – you can’t make fabric magically appear if you’re tall.
I feel everyone’s pain. Most of us don’t fit the manuafacturer’s version of normal size and then scratch their heads and blame the economy for falling sales.
As a petite/plus sized gal I have several problems. Petites don’t run large enough and plus sizes are too big in the shoulders, too low in the arm pits and just too long all over. It isn’t simply a matter of shortening the sleeves on a blouse.
And don’t get me started on those low rise jeans. I think that they are the reason dresses and skirts have become so popular!
I was just in the mall the other day and omg what shit they are passing off as fashion. Ann Taylor just about doubled their prices and lowered their quality to the level of The Limited. The store was empty, no customers at all. The department stores were all showing recycled crap from last year just in different colors at 50% higher prices. And what’s with jackets that are so tight you can’t even get your arm in them? I’m a small size so I can’t even imagine how you larger girls find clothes that fit. Where oh where can I find quality clothes that fit and don’t cost a fortune?
low rise jeans are the devil. i don’t need to see some stranger’s butt crack, thanks.