Five Challenges Plus Size Shoppers Face

I was recently asked to provide feedback for a student working on a dissertation focused on plus size fashion, where it’s headed and what still needs to change. It’s a topic that I think about a lot. I talked to her for over an hour and was physically exhausted by the end of the conversation. It’s clear that change is happening in the plus size fashion industry: we have more options than ever. But these changes don’t always feel like they are getting us closer to the equality that we really need to be able to shop the same way that our straight size counterparts can. And more mainstream brands entering the plus size fashion sphere can feel like it’s pushing us further away from actually battling society’s stigma against fat bodies.

I often use the analogy of a plate of food. Plus size consumers have been given crumbs for so long that we are expected to be satisfied that those crumbs are now maybe a side dish. Sure, we have more food than we had before but it’s certainly still not a full meal. To go from crumbs to a side dish seems like an improvement but we can’t let mainstream media and retailers decide that’s all we deserve when straight size consumers get a damn five-course dinner. Additionally, some plus consumers, particularly those at the larger end of the size spectrum, are still being given crumbs. It’s hard to celebrate something as a victory that leaves behind a large chunk of the plus size community.

As a plus size woman who both creates and covers plus size fashion, my position in this industry allows me to know both the inner-workings of production (at least from an indie perspective) as well as be tuned into the needs of the plus size fashion community. But at the end of the day, I’m still a plus size consumer who wears a size 22/24 and I’m easily frustrated by shopping both online and in person.

So I posed the question on my social media: what is the most annoying thing about shopping as a plus size consumer? The overwhelming response that I received aligned with a lot of my own frustrations. I read through all of the comments and compiled a list of the most common grievances though there’s certainly layered complexities to these issues. I decided to consciously keep this list general and leave any specific brands out of it. My focus was on the customer experience. Though not everything may apply to every retailer or every consumer, it’s pretty clear to me that the shopping experience for plus size buyers still leaves a lot to be desired.

1. The Assumption That All Plus Bodies Look The Same

There are plus size petite and plus size tall consumers; plus size shoppers who are one size on on the top and a different size on the bottom; plus size women with large breasts and plus size women with small breasts; plus size masculine, plus size feminine, and gender non-conforming consumers. This list could go on and on. And while some models think we need to , it’s actually one of the descriptors that’s being used as a blanket term to serve a community that looks vastly different and has a variety of needs. I can’t imagine how we’d even begin to find clothes without using it.

While straight size consumers are being sold jeans in short, regular and tall lengths, I still have a hard time finding jeans at all in my size let alone jeans that fit both my thighs and waist that aren’t an extra foot long on my 5’1†frame. And when straight size folks try to tell me that leggings aren’t pants, I have to believe it’s because they haven’t tried shopping for pants as a plus size person. This frustration was also expressed in bra shopping. Whether it was a lack of larger band sizes in smaller cup sizes or some brands not offering larger band sizes at all, this was a hot issue. A lot of these frustrations really boiled down to an assumption of proportionality. Only eight percent of women according to Madame Noire. If retailers assume all plus size buyers are hourglass shape, that leaves a lot of bodies out completely.

2. The Lack of Options

I’m going to condense a few of the common concerns into this one important frustration: options. I heard people at both ends of the price spectrum say they wanted more options. Reasonable plus size bras are basically non-existent but so are high-end couture garments in plus size. There’s a general frustration with a lack of quality and an over-use of polyester fabrics.

That brings me to aesthetic. From chic minimalism to ultra gaudy and everything in between, plus size consumers still feel like their personal style is being stifled by a lack of options. And again, it seems like there’s an assumption that all plus size buyers are driven more by a desire to look thinner than a need to express their personal style the same way their straight size counterparts do. I don’t want to see another ruched dress if I don’t also get to see a fitted bandage dress right next to it. It’s definitely not about a lack of fitted options either; finding something cute that fits oversized in plus can be just as difficult.

And the aesthetic challenge is compounded when you’re above a size 18 and especially when you’re above a size 24. While some stores relegate certain sizes to online only, some stores still don’t offer certain sizes at all. Options available to consumers also varies by location. I’m not just talking physical proximity to a major US city because non-US customers are either dealing with heavy custom fees to buy from US-based retailers for items that they have to pay to return or faced with retailers that don’t ship international at all. Finding something you like that is available in your size, that fits your budget, and that you are able to access from your location can feel like an overwhelming task.

If I were to pull ten random garments from my closet, there’s no doubt that the tags of these garments would list a range of different sizes. Just last week, I bought pieces that were both a size large and a size 4X. The inconsistency of sizing was a top concern of consumers and this inconsistency wasn’t just among different plus brands, it’s sometimes within the same plus brand. I know I personally have skirts in multiple sizes from the same brand. When we are able to try things on in person, this inconsistency is annoying; when we are shopping online just from size charts, this inconsistency is nearly impossible.

Then there’s junior plus size clothing versus women’s plus size clothing. Junior plus size clothing is created smaller than women’s plus size clothing but it’s rarely labeled as such. And whether this discrepancy comes from the original manufacturer or from a boutique retailer, at the consumer level, it’s pretty frustrating when the tag says 3X but the garment wouldn’t fit a women’s size 16.

Surprisingly, no one mentioned vanity sizing but it irks me on a near weekly basis. There are some retailers who use sizes small through large as a substitute for 1X through 3X. It feels like these retailers assume I would feel better about seeing this size on the tag but in reality, I just want it to be easy to find clothes that fit. And beyond having to constantly consult the online size chart for the vanity conversion, I think about the resale value of these garments as someone who shops second hand. It’s unlikely a garment labeled large would likely end up in the queen section at my local thrift store.

My local suburban malls usually feature one plus size clothing store or sometimes it’s only a store that carries plus size. Often times if a store carries plus and straight sizes, the plus size section is a poorly labeled back corner of the store where it’s dark, messy, and size mediums seem to be mixed throughout every rack. I shopped at a department store’s plus size section recently and I was surprised that right under the large overhead sign that read “plus size,†there was a big rack of straight size clothes. These racks of non-plus clothes were sprinkled through the already small plus size section alongside maternity options. And all of the cute plus size bikinis I had seen from this retailer online were nowhere in sight. That skirted floral one-piece I definitely didn’t want was of course front and center. Ideally, it would be great to be able to be able to shop for the same items in person and online when a retailer offers both.

Plus size women are of the US population, but we’re being given about 1 percent of the floor space. And while news outlets continue to publish think pieces about why plus size only makes up about 17 percent of all apparel sales, I can’t but wonder if the obvious answer is that we just aren’t being given what we want.

In-store mannequins and merchandising leave something to be desired for plus consumers. The dressing rooms don’t account for the fact that we need a little more space. And while shopping online seems like a good alternative, it doesn’t help that brands continue to use models that are pretty homogenous looking in terms of size and shape. If I can’t visualize what a garment will look like on my fat body, I’m so much less inclined to purchase it. It feels like the trade-off becomes frumpy in-store options I know will fit or trendier online options that I may end up sending back or altering. This doesn’t give plus size consumers a lot of agency over their desired shopping experience. If the only place that offers plus size tights in your size is online-only, the choice just isn’t there.

5. Plus Is Not Equal

When trends from mainstream fashion are made in plus size, it’s often at a higher cost and months after it’s been done in straight sizes. It feels like plus size fashion is an afterthought and certainly not the customer that these brands are focused on if they carry both straight and plus sizes. The term “second class citizen†came up multiple times in the consumer feedback.

I’m going to put on my designer hat here for a second and say that it does cost more to make garments in plus sizes than straight size but that doesn’t necessarily justify plus size prices that are double or triple the price of straight size pieces. Also, if the garment is made in all sizes, why not price it based on the average cost of production? This makes sense to me.

But at least those different priced items are being made in plus because a lot of brands that offer both straight and plus sizes create totally different pieces. This begs the question: if you thought it was cute enough to design in sizes 0-12, what made you think someone size 14-36 wouldn’t want to wear it too?

This brings me to the reason why we can’t stop talking about the challenges we still face as plus size shoppers. Plus size fashion isn’t equal to straight size fashion because it still being created in a society that hates fat people. This fatphobia makes dressing the way you want to as a fat person difficult. This isn’t to say that there aren’t brands and retailers out there getting it right and trying their best because there certainly are. But we need more support for those brands and more retailers who are willing to listen. And while, fashion may be something that energizes me and ignites my passion, shopping itself can be damn exhausting.

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