The Struggle to Find Quality Plus Size Lingerie

Long Kimono Sleeve Robe – $64.95 Long charmeuse robe with kimono sleeves.

A year ago I wrote about a trend of lingerie websites having a “plus size lingerie” section filled with cookie cutter not to appealing items.  Today looking across a few websites that have popped up since the original article I see thing not only have not changed but have gotten worse.

This trend of websites that do not have a natural plus size crowd as there base are including a “plus size lingerie” section.  Most of these merchants are missing the point of ladies shopping at websites were the models look like them!  If size zero is on the front why would any plus size woman look to see if lingerie in her size is available?

Another disturbing part about this new trend is the selection of clothes offered are the same items carried on wholesale websites that provides items for mass marketed Ebay auctions.  If carrying cookie cutter items was not bad enough some of these sites only have 5-10 items available in sizes that stop at 2X!

This is a struggle that has been going on for years in the arena of plus size lingerie.  The sad part is that many ladies just deal with it instead of looking into companies like Hips and Curves.com- a Full Figure Plus Readers Choice merchant for quality lingerie.   With lingerie in sizes up to 6x and bras up to a J cup there is no doubt who they are targeting.  In 2009  if a merchant wants the plus size dollar they should be willing to cater to larger sizes upfront and not leave it as a footnote to be stumbled upon.

In the years that I have been looking at the growing full figured scene on the Internet I know why merchants are testing the waters trying to get the dollars from plus size divas.  They want a piece of that $12 billion dollar retail pie that is projected to come from plus size fashion and lingerie by 2012.  But dare I say they are in the closet “Janice Dickinson’s, Meme Roth’s and Karl Largerfeld’s” in that they do not want to be labeled as plus size companies.  Speaking of Karl Lagerfeld he recently made the statement; “You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.” So much for equality in the world of fashion.

Don’t get me wrong I do not think that all websites that add plus size lingerie sections are playing games.  Most are business individuals like myself that are looking to increase their profits.  What is troubling is that they appear to be going about it in an insulting half baked way as if courting to larger customers will taint their brand or something equally as insane.  What do you think about websites that suddenly add a plus size section with a selection that is less than stellar?