9 Designers Speak Candidly on Why the Industry Is Plus-Averse

There are two things that drive me insane about the
fashion industry: The first being the lack of true inclusivity
when it comes to designing, marketing, and producing clothing for
women of all sizes. The second is when the conversation
around inclusivity in any aspect is surface level only,
avoiding the nitty-gritty uncomfortable facets of reality, and
doesn’t offer tangible solutions.

In a world so often preoccupied with everything that’s
going wrong, I wanted to take the opportunity to focus on what’s
going right—specifically, highlighting the designers who are at
the forefront of changing the way we relate to sizing within the
fashion industry. Let’s face it: We can talk about inclusivity
all day, or we can roll up our sleeves, do the work, and
actually be inclusive. Ahead, here are nine
designers not only talking about shifting the industry but doing
the work, too.

About the Company:
11 Honoré is a multi-brand e-retailer carrying luxury brands
and designers, exclusive to its
site. It works with fashion houses to partner and support them
in becoming size-inclusive and creating luxury pieces ranging from
size 12 to 24.

Why do you think traditionally the industry has shied
away from creating more fashion-forward, bold, sultry pieces for
curvier women?

Most likely due to a bias that fashion has had toward a curvy
figure. From the media to models and of course, the “standard” size
run, thin has always been the lens that the entire industry has
been placed under. As for bold and fashion-forward design, it takes
technical knowledge and thoughtful design to make that happen, and
the brands and designers creating high-end fashion were all
sticking to straight sizes…until now.

“Extending sizing is completely possible if a brand or
designer wants to do it. Yes, there is a learning curve and
definitely an investment of time and resources in order to make
sure it’s done really well, but technically there is no reason it
cannot be done.”

Oftentimes clothing that is created for curvier women is
either impractical, bland, or prone to wardrobe malfunctions. How
do you think as designers can avoid falling into this
issue?

By understanding that just because that is what she has always
been offered does not mean that that’s what she wants. It’s just
been the status quo with a lot of bias behind it, and that needs to
and is changing.

About the Brand:
Henning just launched this September is already making waves
throughout the industry. Founded by a former plus-size model and
fashion editor, Henning’s brand DNA focuses on tailoring and
work-ready pieces for women size 12 and up. We’re already
expecting great things from this newcomer to space!

You got your start in the industry as a model then you
became a fashion editor. From your experience, why do you think the
industry is averse to creating both content and clothing for women
of all sizes?

I think foremost, a lot of people just don’t
want to do it because they don’t think women above size 12
deserve to be included in fashion. And secondly, because it’s a
giant undertaking—it’s a lot of effort, a lot of knowledge that
people don’t have, and it’s a lot of money. So for those two
reasons combined, I think a lot of the fashion industry ignores
plus-size women.

From an editorial and content aspect, I think
because fashion has typically excluded plus-size people from both
the inside and outside, everything from clothing offerings to
content reflects that. So if there is nobody at a magazine who is
plus-size, then it’s probably likely that nobody is covering the
plus-size beat at that magazine.

“I was a fashion editor at Condé Nast, but my peers
were wearing current season designer every day, and I was in the
same meetings with them wearing Forever 21. Season after season,
no one in the true fashion space was making clothing I could wear,
so I decided to.”

Typically plus-size clothing is not only limited in
terms of product creation but also, there seems to be what many
refer to as a “fat tax,” where plus-size products cost more. In
your eyes, what’s happening here? And how do you think the
industry can change the way we produce and price
products?

Any clothing is a big undertaking to produce, but what happens
is that it costs more money to make clothes that require more
fabric or more embellishments, or a different pattern and another
fit model. And unfortunately, when we see price jumps between
straight sizes and plus-sizes, brands aren’t absorbing those
costs on behalf of the plus-size customer—and that’s wrong. If
brands are going to undertake including more sizes, then they need
to think about how at the very worst they are going to absorb those
costs—whether it’s at a customer acquisition cost, or it comes
from the marketing budget. Nobody should be charged more
because of their size.

About the Brand:
Good American is a brand founded by Emma
Grede that has focused on size-inclusivity since day one and is
dedicated to exploring new ways to make the shopping and retail
experience better for bodies of all shapes and sizes.

Why do you think so many companies are averse to
creating clothing for women of all sizes?

For starters, the fashion industry is inherently sizeist.
Separately, being size-inclusive requires the right team and
expertise. Not all designers have experience with extended sizing,
so there’s hesitation among brands to offer a larger range of
sizing because it varies from the “standard” design process
they’ve been using for years. It’s really challenging to find
design talent who understands fit, and many times brands don’t
want to invest in that.

“In the beauty space, it would not be
considered unacceptable to release foundation shades in a few light
skin tones. Therefore, we have to wonder why it’s okay for
fashion brands to ignore the 68% of women who are a size
16+.”

Unfortunately, plus-size still is taboo within the
industry—despite the fact that the average American woman is a
size 16. How do you think we can flip the narrative around sizing
in the industry?

Many women have been ignored in the fashion industry up until
this point, and while some brands are starting to recognize this,
there is still a stigma in fashion around offering an extended
range of sizing. By actually being inclusive and flipping the
narrative ourselves, more brands are starting to realize that this
is the way forward.

About the Brand: Founded by Erin Cavanaugh & Yi
Zhou, See
Rose Go is a design-driven company with a thoughtful approach
to material selection and craftsmanship, all at an accessible price
point.

Why do you think traditionally the industry has shied
away from creating more fashion-forward, bold, sultry pieces for
curvier women?

The industry has felt it was enough to offer merely acceptable
design and quality to a woman they felt was only focused on finding
her size. At the outset, we were surprised to discover just how
underserved this market is. When we asked one woman where she
shops, her response floored us: “Where
do I shop? Or where do I want to shop?” She doesn’t want to
be labeled or categorized. Both women and men want
what everyone wants from a fashion brand—to be inspired and
delighted.

“Defining a woman by her size is as demeaning
as defining who she is as a person by the way she looks. It is a
perspective that is both out of date and out of
touch.”

Even the term “plus-size” is categorically irrelevant. All
women are beautiful, and we can be part of establishing a new
narrative around sizing by demonstrating through our design,
fabrication, and features that “size means nothing.” She is not
defined by size and neither are we.

What do you love about designing for women of all
sizes?

Designing clothing is a humbling endeavor, and building a brand
from scratch is even more challenging. But we know that there is a
hunger for what we have to offer. And when you can create a unique
piece that inspires a woman to go out and make her impact on the
world, it makes the struggle all worth it.

About the Brand: Founded in
New York City in 2017,
Second Sight is dedicated to shifting the way we produce
clothing, through not only inclusive sizing but also through
tapered collection drops that are the antithesis to fast
fashion.

Unfortunately, plus-size still is taboo within the
industry—despite the fact that the average American woman is a
size 16. How do you think we can flip the narrative around sizing
in the industry?

I think that moving away from the term “plus-size” could
help. At Second Sight we say “size-inclusive,” which we hope
lets people know that they can find sizes for a variety of
different body shapes and sizes. This is important too because
bigger sizes don’t just mean bigger—it might mean someone has
broad shoulders and wants to size up, or has a large bust to
consider. There are a lot of factors that go into the way clothing
fits bodies.

“It is a bigger financial investment, which can
be a barrier for some brands to extending sizing. But I also think
it can be intimidating at first to try and make clothing that looks
good on a variety of body types. It takes a different approach from
the start.”

Unlike other brands, you create what’s called
“editions.” Could you explain what that means in layman’s terms and
why it’s so important to your brand ethos?

We decided to do it this way because we felt the traditional
model, wholesale or seasonal, felt disconnected from the way people
actually shop. So we created the editions as a way to address the
need for immediacy while considering the fact that we produce in
New York and are not making fast fashion.

About the Brand: Unlike other companies that expand to
plus-size, Universal
Standard was founded specifically to cater to women above size
14, and then expanded to all sizes. It is one of the few brands in
which every single collection is available from size 00-40.

Unfortunately, plus-size still is taboo within the
industry—despite the fact that the average American woman is a
size 16. How do you think we can flip the narrative around sizing
in the industry?

 Ultimately it comes down to access, representation, respect,
and what we are taught is beautiful. We created this brand to
change the lens through which fashion looks at women, and we will
continue to push hard to make all of us visible by offering
unprecedented access and radical representation. But we can not do
it alone. We hope to show others in the industry that creating
fashion for all women is not just the right thing to do, but is
just good business. For us, fashion is the same whether it’s for
a woman who is a size 4 or a size 34, so we don’t actually have a
use for the term “plus-size fashion.” We think it’s time to
retire these labels and instead invite all women to take part in a
singular fashion industry. That’s the only way forward if we
truly want to shift the narrative.

Oftentimes clothing that is creating for curvier women
is either impractical, bland, or prone to wardrobe malfunctions.
How do you think designers can avoid falling into this
issue?

 It’s funny, I’ve always thought the opposite!
Plus-size clothing always seems to be over-decorated and over the
top, with all that floral camouflage, beads, graphics, and terrible
illustrations. If you wanted a simple white T-shirt, you had to go
to a men’s brand.

“The clothing on offer for the bigger body was
either something that infantilized you or hypersexualized you or
painted you into some other exasperating corner of the plus-girl
trope. We’ve always asked, ‘If you wouldn’t offer this to a
size 4 customer, why would you offer it to a size 24
customer?'”

This has informed our entire approach to product, and we’re
always challenging ourselves to think differently, tell new
stories, and incorporate trends in new and dynamic ways; and we
wish more of our peers in the industry would do the same, which is
why we’ve loved collaborating with J.
Crew and Rodarte
to help provide better access to their beautiful designs.

About the Brand: Warp
+ Weft is a denim brand that is not only dedicated to
inclusive sizing but also to sustainable social and environmental
production processes. Every pair of jeans is created from start to
finish by the brand and uses 1490 fewer gallons of water in the
production process than the traditional pair of jeans.

Why do you think traditionally the industry has shied
away from creating more fashion-forward, bold, sultry pieces for
curvier women?

I think it comes down to us being so hard on ourselves and our
bodies. Top designers were usually men who had an idea of what a
woman looks like and envisioned their designs on that. Us as women
perpetuated that trend and over time, the images that resulted from
this morphed our entire view on what is considered normal.

I think we live in an amazing time now where women are
saying, No, we don’t accept this. We are who we are and have the
voice and the platform to express that. The more we see diversity,
the more our brains acclimate to perceiving that is normal. We have
made such strides as a global society in the past few years that
wouldn’t be possible without the evolution of social media and the
internet. Of course, there is a downside as well, but overall,
there is enough out there where people can choose what narrative to
follow on social media, and that choice is powerful.

“When I think about denim, I think about how
all over the world from the Far East to the Middle East and Africa
to Europe and the Americas, other than a unique national or
cultural dress, denim is a staple. It goes way beyond gender, body
size, race, or religion, and its ability to unify us is nothing
short of magical.”

Through your own work, what do you hope your creations
do within the industry and for the women wearing
them?

My dream was to create a denim brand that
represented the optimism, empathy, and inclusivity of the next
generation. The name, which means the vertical and horizontal weave
of every fabric, was an ode to both the universal nature of denim
but also dream that together we would break the boundaries of what
people thought of denim—how it is made, who is making it, and who
it is ultimately wearing it. Our denim
represents a global effort, in terms of both sustainable product
production and inspiration, and the fact that we can do
that for such a wide range of women is the biggest privilege of my
life.

About Katie Sturino: the founder of the beauty
brand Megababe,
Katie Sturino has been one of the leaders in driving conversations
around size inclusivity. More recently, she’s collaborated
with Stitch
Fix (an online styling service) to create an exclusive line
catered to women of all sizes.

You started as a blogger, and now you’ve started
multiple ventures that cater to “niche” markets. From your
experience, what do you want to say to people within the industry
who say certain demographics aren’t worth creating products
for?

Let’s start with the fact that what I’m doing isn’t niche!
Niche = small, but what I’m doing is catering to the majority of
women. I am always hearing the word “niche” associated with my
business Megababe,
and about the plus-size clothing industry as a whole, which is not
the case at all for either.

“Brands associate being plus with not having
style, and that largely comes from the fact that there haven’t been
larger style icons. But the truth is, we want to wear the leopard!
We want a hot pink miniskirt! We are not a generation of women
trying to blend in or hide; we want to participate in fashion just
as much as the size 4 girl.”

Why do you think so many companies are averse to
creating clothing for women of all sizes?

I think a lot of companies are afraid to take the leap. I feel
like there are a lot of companies that will never change their
tune, and I will never understand why because it is such a huge
market. There are a lot of companies out there that add a 14 to
their size range and call it a plus-size extension. It may be a
bigger size for them, and they may pat themselves on the back for
it, but they’re not even reaching the average size woman. I feel
like it will take a lot of time and convincing to make it a fully
inclusive industry.