How the Fashion Industry Marginalizes Plus-Size Women
Does size really matter?
By Leonardo Grasselli
All through the centuries, women are perceived to do everything possible to feel accepted into the modern cookie-cutter mold of the common, accepted world. From the introduction of the corset in the 18th century to the colored style of hippies in the 60s and 70s, weight is one of the major trends that came following these fashions through the centuries. For the past five decades, since the rising of the models such as Verushka von Lehndorff and Twiggy, the society shunned away from the plus-size and generally accepted the phenomenon of the slim (Peters, 2017). Unlike the word “thin,” the word “fat” changed from a descriptive word to an offensive word to some individuals. After careful considerations, designers chose the term “plus-size” in the fashion industry and exhibitions to describe non-thin individuals. In the United States, the “ideal” woman depicted by the movie stars and models weighs below 100 pounds, is 5'7", and wears a lacey, size 8, outfit (Pound, 2018). These descriptions demonstrated an alarming fact since the plus-size people were the majority in the nation, but most designers, particularly in the high fashion designers, ignore them and instead designed clothing lines for the ideal individuals.
Plus-size fashion and the plus-size models have recently faced a surge of popularity.
During the 19th century, the topic of women’s bodies and their weight, became entangled with challenges regarding ethics, health, and deviance, since these stigmas slowly leaked their way into the cultural cognizant that exists till today (Riordan, 2018). However, to change into a more different new-age fashion business, people ought to direct the pressure on modern cultural constructs (Pound, 2018). Most fashion shows use tall and thin models only to wear their designs to display the most beautiful and elegant sides of wearing clothes. In the present society, people have human rights, which mean that everyone is equal (Czerniawski, 2015). One of the noticeable themes is that since the existence of the fashion industry, plus-size women have greatly been stigmatized without having a fair chance to engage in the fashion industry as the tall and thin women. To curb this challenge, designers ought to work with new brands to expand their size charts to serve every individual better no matter their body size. Also, fashion businesses need to present more realistic images of plus-size models and involve their clients to make them feel less neglected and marginalized.
For plus-size women, they have to go the extra mile just to try and hunt down the right sizes for their specific measurements (Schallon, 2019). Years ago, most of them struggled to find on-trending and stylish, since the fashion industry assumed that the larger women were non-interested in brands and fashion. Moreover, some enterprises assume that employing good-looking individuals can attract good-looking consumers. As a result, they hurt the dignity and feelings of plus-size individuals. A culture grew from complete frustration at the lack of alternatives for larger women (Riordan, 2018). Being a plus-size does not necessarily make an individual distressed, rather it’s the judgment, teasing, and unsolicited opinions concerning larger persons that can result in the greatest psychological harm. For instance, the Abercrombie and Fitch faced criticism in 2016 for being weight discriminative after they had announced that they did not want to sell their designs to larger people, making them lose their customers, stock, and markets (Peters, 2017). Most models in the fashion industry are pressured into unhealthy lifestyles where they are diagnosed with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia due to the industry’s encouragement to maintain their figures (Riordan, 2018). To curb this issue of marginalization of the fashion industry towards the plus-size people, the designers should work with the upcoming brands to expand their size charts and model sizes to serve each individual better, no matter the body size.
Most plus-size shoppers have been majorly underserved and ignored by the fashion corporation.
The general consent among the common society is that most plus-size fashions can be categorized into totally un-sexy or being either too revealing or too tight (Schallon, 2019). For many years now, fashion designers have been struggling to please plus-size clients, although research depicts that these clients are very eager for elegant and trendy clothing for their sizes. Nonetheless, a company like Target has spurred numerous boycotts and criticism for the exclusion of plus-size individuals from their highly-projected clothing line. The plus-size individuals’ voices, as they are well known in the highly online forums, are clamoring to declare their satisfaction with the fashion industry (Czerniawski, 2015). In most cases, fashion retailers and designers do not need to face outright criticism or boycott to comprehend that the clients feel neglected and marginalized by meager plus-size offerings. To get ahead of the demand and ensure their clients feel appreciated, designers and retailers ought to be actively listening to the aspirations and the needs of the plus-size people, since they are regularly changing.
Most retailers and designers make the mistake of considering the fashion market to be completely diverse to fashion in general. In the fashion world, diversity and inclusivity are hastily becoming new watch terms, since most businesses are aiming for a new age group of publicly switched-on young customers by implementation body positivity and size inclusion (Peters, 2017). For instance, the Asos launched the new “coming of age” brand, where it revealed the generation Z-focused brand with a wide-ranging promotion that involved many individuals of diverse ethnicities, genders, and body sizes. The choice to include different sizes in the promotion became commercially beneficial for the company, as the sale of size-inclusive styles such as tall, plus, and petite, grew their overall profits (Czerniawski, 2015). From this experience, pressure has been mounting on designers and businesses that do not cater to the plus-size people. This shows how the demand for inclusivity is filtered into fashion campaigns as designers largely involve plus-size models, who represent the majority in most countries (Pound, 2018). Therefore, through the involvement of plus-size clients in the fashion industry, larger people feel more accommodated and less marginalized, which improves their sense of satisfaction, which in turn benefits the businesses commercially.
In conclusion, the fashion industry has greatly marginalized, ignored, and neglected the plus-size people.
This is because they mainly focus on the “ideal” woman depicted by the size eight movie stars and models weighing below 100 pounds. Most fashion shows use tall and thin models only to wear their designs to display the most elegant and beautiful sides of wearing their designs. As a result, most of the plus-size people struggle to find trendy and stylish outfits as they have to go the extra mile just to try and hunt down the right sizes for their specific measurements. As noted, for instance, In the United States, the “ideal” woman depicted by the movie stars and models weighs below 100 pounds, is 5'7", and wears a lacey, size 8, outfit (Pound, 2018). These descriptions demonstrated an alarming fact since the plus-size people were the majority in the nation, but most designers, particularly in the high fashion designers, ignored the plus size women. Another noted example is how many models in the fashion industry are pressured into unhealthy lifestyles where they are diagnosed with eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia due to the industry’s encouragement to maintain their figures. This is because most fashion shows use tall and thin models only to wear their designs to display the most beautiful and elegant sides of wearing clothes. Moreover, companies that choose to include diverse sizes in their sales and campaigns tend to grow their profits and encounter less criticism from the public.
References:
Czerniawski, A. M. (2015). Fashioning fat: Inside plus-size modeling.NYU Press. Retrieved from: https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=iWkFBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=margi nalization+of+plus-size+people+in+fashion+industry&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiCx aea_YnmAhXTTRUIHTHDDVMQ6AEIRzAE#v=onepage&q&f=false
Peters, L. D. (2017). “Fashion Plus”: Pose and the Plus-Size Body in Vogue, 1986–1988. Fashion Theory, 21(2), 175–199. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/29936954/_Fashion_Plus_Pose_and_the_Plus-Size_Body_in_ Vogue_1986–1988
Pound, C. (2018, January 24). What is the ideal female body shape?.BBC. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180122-what-is-the-ideal-female-body-shape
Riordan, H. (2018, September 12). Why are models so skinny? The truth about this fashion industry reality. The Hub. Retrieved from: https://thehhub.com/2018/09/12/why-are-models-so-skinny/
Schallon, L. (2019, August 26). The ‘f’ word. Glamour. Retrieved from: https://www.glamour.com/story/what-its-like-to-be-plus-size-and-work-in-fashion
