Is Plus Size Fashion a Niche Market?
- 1 Comment
After reading Paris fashionistas embrace oversized clients, which talks about how one of the major fashion shows in Paris has embraced plus size clothing houses and models I started to think about plus size fashion in general. For decades purchasing clothing for larger sizes has been treated as a niche or specialty market. With more and more retailers and designers paying attention to the plus size market, are fashions for plus sizes and big and tall still considered to be a niche market?
Three years ago my answer to this question would have been a definite yes. With the changes that have occurred in the fashion world in just my short time of blogging the gap between niche and mainstream is getting smaller each day. More independent designers are entering the industry daily because of the lack of support for larger size clothing from retailers.
In addition, many designers stop the size ranges for their clothing at a size 12. The frustrations caused by this and the lack of trendy clothing is part of the reason that plus size merchants like Torrid.com and alight.com are in business. Also this is part of the reason I am starting to lean towards the thoughts that in the fashion world being big is slowly becoming the norm instead of a fluke or last minute addition.
I am sure many websites and stores that sell clothing for larger sizes would love to sell all size ranges. Unfortunately those that support smaller sizes only are so openly hostile to bigger individuals that size acceptance is a hot topic which leads to thoughts of niche for some when in reality we just want to be treated fairly regardless of our size. In other words why would we support smaller sizes when they show no support for fat people.
Though there have been considerable advances in bringing plus size fashion to the masses there is still more ground that needs to be covered. With the continuation of major fashion meccas like Italy and Paris warming up to plus sizes, maybe we will see it happen at the New York Fashion week as well. Niche or no niche plus size fashion is here to stay and there is nothing that any of the critics can say to stop the momentum.
Check out the Ulitmate Shopping list for more shopping bargains!
1 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
-
vesta44 said:
I think a lot of what is bringing designers to the plus-sizes is that there are many more fat women than there are thin women. If you want to sell more clothing, you have to design for the majority, not the minority (unless you want to be exclusive and charge outrageous prices for clothing no one can/would wear). Average women are a size 14, not a size 0, so designing for those average women just makes sense. And I would venture to say that there are more women above a size 14 than there are women that are a size 0 or 00. So yes, it’s about time designers started taking fat women into consideration. After all, we have money to spend on clothing too, and our money pays their bills and supports their lifestyle just as well as a thin woman’s money. Now if they would only consider women larger than a 22/24, I would be in heaven.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
