My wife needs a new suit to restart her career, so we go out to the Ann Taylor website to see what’s in style and all we see are a bunch of tall size 2 women who look fantastic in their pencil skirts. That’s great, but my wife is something like a 12P, short and with giant boobs, so none of these pictures are useful.
I think people have been so fixated on the idea of plus size models for body image reasons that they’ve missed an actual benefit for shoppers. I propose that a women’s clothing company could change the industry if they rounded up a collection of, say, 25-50 models for each seasons’ clothing line and had each model try on an appropriate size of every single outfit. Then shoppers could pick the model that most closely matched their height, weight, and body, then the website would only show them pictures of the clothes with that model. Then they could see right away if the clothes are going to look absolutely stupid before heading out to the store and wasting everyone’s time.
What’s the downside? Other than having a bunch of pictures on the website where people look terrible in the company’s clothes.
Hiring a bunch of models. Making a bunch of clothes (which they don’t get to sell). Paying the photographers to shoot them all, and the other eleven people on set while the shoot is taking place. Renting the space necessary to do the shoot in. Time spent building the website as a “choose your own size” website rather than “here you go.”
In any business, if the question is “why?” the answer is usually “Money.”
I think that a large percentage of women’s clothing is purchased in the hope that it will make you look more like the model. Just look at descriptions that promise to “slim” “smooth” “support” “shape” etc. While they’re not total BS, most of those S words are code for “$50 will make you look like a supermodel!”
Heck, even website that feature plus size models will show the small end of the plus range and no model will have stretch marks, cellulite, disproportionate hips or an apparent age over 29. (Unless the market is to seniors, in which case, she’ll look 45.)
This is why mannequins wouldn’t be a good solution. Mannequins sell clothes, not fantasies.
Mmkay, “Money,” part 2: The fashion industry (and most industry that relies on advertising) has spent the past hundred years or so very carefully defining what is attractive, rather than finding out what people wanted and then selling them that. Combine that with the fact that women’s clothing tends to be cut in a way such that it hangs better off a slender frame and you end up with an industry that’s telling us that women need to be skinny and wear skinny clothes. This practice has been getting a lot of bad press lately, but bear in mind that most “plus size” models are still smaller than a significant percentage of the women in America, and you can see that they’re still not selling clothes sized for the people their customers are; they’re sized for the people they want their customers to be.
However, bear in mind I just watched The Devil Wears Prada last night, in which stick-figure-woman Anne Hathaway is openly mocked for being a wobbling, cow-like size 6.
Which is obviously silly because she’s wobbling on account of being clumsy as fuck, and her weight has nothing to do with it.
The downside is that women who aren’t tall, wilowy size 2’s would like to think they are. Clothing stores (like sellers of many other products) are selling the fantasy that if you buy this particular clothing item, you will look like a fashion model. As someone who closely follows fashion and shopping, I can tell you that I hear comments every day from women who don’t want to purchase an item when it is shown on a larger size model, because even if they know that’s how they look, if they don’t like the image they’re seeing, they’re not going to want to make the purchase.
Many websites do have fit guidelines that allow you to put your measurements into the system and will tell you what size will work best for you (or occasionally that an item is not a good fit for you). At one time, they used to build a little online mannequin with your measurements that would actually appear in the clothing. That approach has been discontinued, I’m sure because women didn’t like the way they looked. I know that my little mannequin was much dumpier and looked much worse in clothes than I do.
The best clothing websites are the ones that offer specific garment measurements. On a site where I can go in and see everything from the garment length, to the chest measurement, to the sleeve and thigh circles, I am almost certain to get the right fit. But don’t show me how it’s going to look on me – that’s just going to make me want to shop somewhere else.
Right, there’s been all this press about plus sized models being great for body image, but it’s a joke for consumers because they went from one type of model (tall size 2 waif) to two types of models (tall size 2 waif and tall size 8 bombshell).
I’m not saying they need to hire ugly models, not by any means. I’m not championing for a positive body image. By all means, don’t show us stretch marks, cellulite, pimples, and limp, lifeless hair. Keep doing what you’re doing but find a beautiful 20 year old woman who’s a size 10 with no tits and a big ass, because there’s probably a lot of customers who fit that description.
I think that’s pretty much the same situation as with movies, for instance : people (including women) want to identify with people who are as pretty as they wish they would be. A girl flick where the main character would be actually plain (as opposed to be supposed to be plain while being played by a very attractive actress) wouldn’t get viewers. Clothes worn by plain models wouldn’t get buyers for the same reasons.
Companies’ aren’t run by complete idiots. If they believed they could sell as many clothes by using regular people as models, and on top of it get a good rap for doing so, they would do it.
Note that one of the place where there are a lot of statement about the impossible fashion standards is also one of the worst offenders : women magazines. They know that their readers wants to read articles about this topic, but also that they wouldn’t sell their magazines (and advertizers wouldn’t sell their products) if they were actually putting their money where their mouth is. The readers wants to feel all offended about ultra-thin 18 yo models and then to buy the underwears an ultre-thin 18 yo model is wearing on the picture.
Note that it’s not just women : you won’t sell many cars or suits by showing them driven/worn by a pot-bellied 50 yo balding guy.
There are a lot of new online options for larger women with clothing modeled by real women. Pretty women, for sure, but real. Gwinnybee comes to mind. There are a few others.
I think this is the root of the answer. Speaking as a plus sized woman who struggles with my weight on an apple-shaped body, when my weight is up all clothes just look hideous on me no matter what. I spent a few years getting increasingly frustrated because everything I bought looked good on the hanger but looked like shit on me. Finally I dropped 30 pounds and had to buy some new clothes and the epiphany hit me. If you’re shaped like an apple (or a potato) as many heavy women are, the only thing that really fits are large swaths of fabric. There are no “lines” to work with and not even diagonal or vertical patterns will make you look slimmer. Pear-shaped women have something to work with, though.
Now that I understand that, it’s part of my motivation for keeping my weight down.
Next time you go into a store, peek at the back of the mannaquins. You’ll notice that the clothes are pinned in the back to make them fit the mannaquin better and have more of a waspish waist. That’s a clue, also. In order to make the clothes look good on the mannaquins, they need to pin them!
Funny, I had the exact same thought as the OP a month or so ago! If only I could see how this shirt sits on some lumps or how the jeans hold a belly…sigh.
I was all excited for Melissa McCarthy’s new clothing line. Here’s the page for it on the HSN web site. Note the size of the women in the top ad versus the models for the clothes. Melissa’s thing was “making clothes that look good at all sizes” but damn…they didn’t even shoot for “middle” with those models!!!
I remember talking to a friend who managed a Torrid, which is a mall clothing store that sells Hot Topic-style clothes for larger women. (In fact, I believe they are the same company.)
Once I was chatting with her at her store, and I noticed a decal in the window saying SIZES 12-26. I said, “12 isn’t very big.” She said, “Right, but we never actually sell anything in that size. Like ever. Girls who wear a 12 shop at the regular stores. We stock 12s so that the women who wear a 20 don’t feel like they’re shopping at a store that’s exclusively for fat women.”
I have to disagree with you there. As a truly pear-shaped woman, with a 2-size differential between my top and my bottom halves, I can tell you that it’s impossible to find clothes that look good on that shape when you’re heavier. I’ve spent plenty of time envying the apples for the clothes they can wear that I can’t. The bottom line is that larger women of all shapes have trouble finding clothing that works, because the clothing we’re trained to think of as good looking is designed for women of average weight.
It’s possible to find very helpful guides to the types of clothing that will work best for your body type, whatever it is, but they are much less effective for heavier women.
I guess I don’t really get the complaint. I mean, I understand it, but everyone deals with this. Nobody looks good in everything, and sizes are not exactly uniform or subject to strict tolerances. This is why you go shopping, and why most online transactions will offer free returns. The images online are just there to give you an idea of what the item is. Unless it’s your first time outside the lab you were grown in, you know you’re not going to rock a pencil skirt if you don’t have a very specific body type. Lamenting that fact is a fool’s errand.
You’re missing the fact that many of us also have some level of body dysmorphia. For example, when I look in the mirror, I see a fair shape, not too fat. I only see how truly big I am when I see myself in photographs or catch myself at odd angles in window reflections, and I find them shocking. Like “who is that whale?.. oh, it’s me” kind of shocking.
When you really think you’re smaller than you actually are, it is surprising that clothes don’t look good. And I disagree with your comment that “that’s why you go shopping”. Sales clerks will tell you you look great just to make a sale.
