Well well well, looks like the fashion industry is finally get hip to the times.
Retailers, designers, manufacturers, and the whole fashion gang have been resisting including larger sizes for years, clamoring that plus sizes don’t sell, larger women don’t buy as much clothing, they don’t want unpopular kids buying their clothes, and upholding a bunch of other exclusionary nonsense. They were wrong and the industry is slowly changing its ways.
Perhaps a move toward more body inclusivity is the result of Anna Wintour’s icy kiss of approval concerning Kate Upton’s figure, which while straight sized is also atypical for high fashion. In her editor’s letter for the issue with Upton on the cover, Wintour said “if the high-fashion world seems incapable of figuring out what to do with her … then that’s its loss.” It really would be fashion’s loss to leave Kate Upton out, not just because she’s a stunner, but because including more bodies could be nothing but lucrative.
According to the Wall Street Journal, two Cornell University apparel-design students found that” plus-size women hold 28% of apparel purchasing power in the U.S., while their spending accounts for only 17%.” Considering, the average woman is now a size 14, it doesn’t come as a surprise that within eight months of introducing a wider variety of sizes, 8% of retro-twee-online shop ModCloth’s revenue came from plus sizes. Here are some of ModCloth’s other numbers on plus-size customers:
Spend 25% more per order
Buy 17% more items per order than regular-sized shoppers
Are 66% more likely to spread the ModCloth gospel via social media.
Plus sized women have been seen as a niche market for too long. Many more strides have to be taken in order to include such a large portion of consumers. For example, plus-size models have to stop being a novelty and designers need to make clothes that actually fit and flatter larger bodies rather than simply increasing the scale of their smaller styles. Hopefully soon, more companies will follow those that have been manufacturing and marketing cute, stylish garments for this underserved and underrepresented portion of shoppers.
Story via Wall Street Journal
Retailers, designers, manufacturers, and the whole fashion gang have been resisting including larger sizes for years, clamoring that plus sizes don’t sell, larger women don’t buy as much clothing, they don’t want unpopular kids buying their clothes, and upholding a bunch of other exclusionary nonsense. They were wrong and the industry is slowly changing its ways.
Perhaps a move toward more body inclusivity is the result of Anna Wintour’s icy kiss of approval concerning Kate Upton’s figure, which while straight sized is also atypical for high fashion. In her editor’s letter for the issue with Upton on the cover, Wintour said “if the high-fashion world seems incapable of figuring out what to do with her … then that’s its loss.” It really would be fashion’s loss to leave Kate Upton out, not just because she’s a stunner, but because including more bodies could be nothing but lucrative.
According to the Wall Street Journal, two Cornell University apparel-design students found that” plus-size women hold 28% of apparel purchasing power in the U.S., while their spending accounts for only 17%.” Considering, the average woman is now a size 14, it doesn’t come as a surprise that within eight months of introducing a wider variety of sizes, 8% of retro-twee-online shop ModCloth’s revenue came from plus sizes. Here are some of ModCloth’s other numbers on plus-size customers:
Spend 25% more per order
Buy 17% more items per order than regular-sized shoppers
Are 66% more likely to spread the ModCloth gospel via social media.
Plus sized women have been seen as a niche market for too long. Many more strides have to be taken in order to include such a large portion of consumers. For example, plus-size models have to stop being a novelty and designers need to make clothes that actually fit and flatter larger bodies rather than simply increasing the scale of their smaller styles. Hopefully soon, more companies will follow those that have been manufacturing and marketing cute, stylish garments for this underserved and underrepresented portion of shoppers.
Story via Wall Street Journal
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