Sense The Curve: Retail And Fashion Industry To Recognize Plus Size Clothing Across Various Outlets

The fashion industry has been a bit biased against plus-sized apparel. However, it has accepted the bitter truth and made several changes to rectify the image and over the last few years, we have witnessed major changes in apparel designing.

Although this shift in focus toward designing plus size clothes could be a result of social and economical pressure. Several celebrities took the help of social media to address the issues of lack of plus size clothes. Several clothing manufacturers, which have been offering clothes till size 12 or 14, have now begun expanding their lines to match size 28. The major retailers such as Amazon, Target, Walmart, and Nordstrom have been including more and more size-inclusive brands to match the customers’ demand.

According to Allied Market Research, the plus-size clothing market is estimated to reach $696.71 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2021 to 2027. The support of celebrities to embrace their image and trend of body positivity has boosted the growth of the market.

For instance, the well-known fast-fashion retailer, Rue21 recently announced to expand its plus-size clothing options to 61 stores. The sizes would be extended by 4x and the collection would include lingerie, tops, dresses, sleepwear, and bottoms for teen girls and young women.

The vacuum of plus size clothing lines was observed by several retailers, including Rue21. Prior to this, Forever 21 offered extensive plus size clothing. However, its murky future drives various retail to fill the gap of plus-size apparel to match with customer demand. According to several surveys, around one-third of female consumers fall in the plus-size category and the declining revenue from the category has woken up several retains and their designers to make fashion accessible to each and every customer.

While several companies aim to add plus size clothes in their lines, Amazon aims to deliver customer customization. A data capturing startup, Body Labs, which was acquired by Amazon recently rolled out a novel technology platform that offers customized garments to people. Under the name of “Made for You”, Amazon would leverage any data and developments from Body Labs to make a new mark on the fashion world.

While shopping online, the biggest concern is which size to choose and is the right size available. Both issues would be addressed with the help of Body Labs. The size-guide chart that asks you to capture your dimensions using tape, often demands a leap of faith while purchasing clothes online. Amazon aims to eliminate this system and use a computer program to know your size and show searched result according to your perfect size. 

As the whole point of designing fashionable clothes is to make people feel good. The inclusion of plus-size clothes in the existing line of apparel has surely made a huge crowd of customers happy. Although the decision of retailers to do so was under the pressure of social media or tread of body positivity is unclear, it is great news for people that want to wear cute, colorful, and desirable clothes even with the size 28.

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