On Plus Side: New Fashion Choices for Size 18

After years of ignoring customer requests for plus-size fashions, fast-growing vintage-look retailer ModCloth last year introduced a few large-size styles. Then some more. Within eight months, plus sizes represented 8% of its revenue.
"We think plus sizes could be even bigger than our regular sizes," says Samara Fetto, ModCloth's plus-size category manager. "Our small-medium-large customer has other options for retailers who can steal a portion of her wallet. For plus, her options are much more limited."
ModCloth is one of the retail entrepreneurs trying to take advantage of the gap between the size of the American woman and what's available for her to wear. The average American woman is 5 foot 4, weighs 167 pounds, and has a 37-inch waist, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. That's roughly a size 14. Yet most designer styles top out around size 12.

Plus-size clothes have long been a lonely corner of the fashion industry, left to specialty retailers such as Lane Bryant. But a slow shift is taking place behind the scenes of the fashion world. Impatience is growing with the dearth of plus-size fashion options, and some small companies are stepping in to fill the gap.
Among the plus-size news in recent weeks: Abercrombie & Fitch is facing protests, criticism and a petition to make plus sizes in May after comments by its CEO in 2006 resurfaced, saying "a lot of people don't belong [in our clothes]." Full Figure Fashion Week, whose fifth season begins in New York next week, will include 100 brands, many times more than the 12 it started with in 2009.


Putting curvaceous model Kate Upton on the cover of Vogue this month, editor Anna Wintour called out her own industry for its recent shunning of a model who, while not plus-size, has caught flak for being larger than most. Ms. Wintour wrote in her editor's letter for the issue, "if the high-fashion world seems incapable of figuring out what to do with her … then that's its loss."
Some designer labels built on skinny images have tiptoed into offering plus-size options. Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren all offer plus sizes. Yet Calvin Klein and Michael Kors declined to show photos of plus-size styles for this column, saying they didn't have any images of them.
There are more large women than ever in the U.S., and younger, plus-size women are demanding high-style fashions and gaining a bigger profile in the social-media world. A number of curvy stars, such as singer Adele and actress Octavia Spencer, have designers clamoring to dress them.
Gabi Gregg, who wears a size 18, launched a fashion blog after she failed to get a job in fashion publishing several years ago. Her blog, GabiFresh, is now a full-time job. She says she isn't trying to lose weight and she wants trendy clothes that aren't afraid to flaunt curves. Her outspoken views—and striking images of her voluptuous self in a black and white bikini—led to the creation her own collection of swimwear called Fatkini, which sold out quickly at SwimsuitsForAll.com.
Ms. Gregg, who shops at Asos Curve, which goes to size 22, and Forever 21 Plus, which makes short shorts and body-conscious dresses, says, "I'm seeing progress" in plus-size offerings.

Ralph Lauren

At Ralph Lauren, this dress was a best-seller this spring.

Industry wisdom argues that heavy women don't buy as many clothes as thin women. But some businesses have found they will—when the clothes are delectable and fit well. ModCloth found that new plus-size customers spend 25% more per order, buy 17% more items per order than regular-sized shoppers, and are 66% more likely to spread the ModCloth gospel via social media. The San Francisco-based retailer is now including large fashion models alongside slim ones in fashion shoots and investing in a specialized team to train clothing brands to make fashionable styles in big sizes.
Dennis Basso gets fan mail about the looks he sells on QVC at up to size 3X. Tennis star Serena Williams sells plus sizes in her fashion line at HSN. A pioneer of high-fashion plus sizes, gown master Tadashi Shoji offers up to size 24 on his own website, and allows clients to shop online by body shape: "apple," "full bust," "hourglass," "pear" or "straight."
Creating plus-size fashions requires expertise that many traditionally trained fashion designers lack. For instance, sizing up a garment requires skillfully placed seams, more fabric and greater width, but not length. Because this is a specialty that many designers don't have, new entrants can take advantage.
At Cornell University this semester, two apparel-design students found in their research that plus-size women hold 28% of apparel purchasing power in the U.S., while their spending accounts for only 17%. Laura Zwanziger and Brandon Wen created designs for a size 14 to 36 collection they called "Rubens' Women" for their product-development project. After body-scanning students on the school's Ithaca, N.Y., campus, they created a size 24 dress form. "You want to follow the curves of the body, not cover it up with fabric," says Ms. Zwanziger.
Mr. Wen wants to pursue a career in plus-size fashion. He says, "There is a lack of history in this field, which lends itself better to create completely new styles and visuals."


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