Fat Girls are still being ignored by fashion companies

Last week fashion columnist Christina Binkley made a video that appeared on the Wall Street Journal. She had some very telling things to say about plus sized clothing being positioned on the margins of the fashion industry.

“’Young fashion lovers have been demanding at an almost revolutionary pace, they have been screaming, “We want fashion, we want short shorts and miniskirts and all the trendy looks.”‘ And bluntly enough, she asserted that one of the main reasons that a lot of fashion companies don’t bite is because they ‘don’t want to be associated with ‘fat.’”

She’s absolutely correct. The truth is, consumers of plus sized fashion are already spending more money on clothes than our thinner peers.

“…online retailer ModCloth found that its plus customers buy 17 percent more items per order, and spend 25 percent more per order than straight size shoppers.”

This is a trend that can be found across the board. I buy a lot of my clothing from Target because it is cheaper than going to stores like Lane Bryant (Target’s clothes are also more youthful, in my opinion.) But even still, the clothes in their misses and juniors’s sections are cheaper still. But that doesn’t stop me from often finding that the styles I like are sold out in my size. Why? Because plus size clothes are in high demand! And this is how we know that the relationship between fashion and fat girls is problematic. Fashion companies are willing to sacrifice the revenue they would make by catering to a more diverse group of bodies in order to distance themselves from fat people.

“…even with that buying power, manufacturers are still tone deaf when it comes to plus. When ModCloth decided to expand its plus-size offering, it asked its 1,500 vendors to consider making larger sized clothes. And out of those 1,500, only 35 volunteered to do so. Thirty-five out of ONE THOUSAND AND FIVE HUNDRED VENDORS. And after only a year or so in existence, The Limited inexplicably shut down it’s plus line, Eloquii earlier this year.”

The effects of this are stores like Torrid, which sells terrible quality clothing items are unreasonable prices because they are one of the few stores in the US that cater to young plus sized buyers. While I thank them for helping me find a dress at the last minute or completing my fall wardrobe with the perfect sweater, I would be remiss not to mention the fact that more than half of the items I’ve purchased from there have torn, ripped, or broken after a single wear.

But this is the direct result of a lack of in-store options for people looking for youthful plus sized clothes (Luckily for us online plus shoppers, there’s asos.com).

Fashion companies: get your shit together and make us quality clothing! Preferably a khaki skirt that I can wear this summer. I’ve been trying to find one for 2 years!

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