Size matters!! Atleast it does when it comes to fashion. There seems to be a very clear division of sizes in women’s clothing. There is the straight (standard) size which is 0 to 12 and there is the plus size clothing which is 16 and above. This very biased sizing system forgets to account for sizes that fall in between, say a size 14. The bias, however, brings to attention a huge market gap, that any smart fashion brand must take into notice.
Bianca Vaccarini who is a fashion blogger, is one such woman who falls in the in-between size range. She says that the fashion brands that contact her for influencer marketing campaigns are usually the ones that offer plus size clothing, even though she is technically not a plus size blogger. Franziska Hasselhof, a medical student/blogger is tired of receiving comments like “Oh, I’m so happy to find a girl who’s not stick skinny who can still look good,”, she considers these as backhanded compliments where someone is saying ‘you look nice in those clothes, despite being heavy, instead of simply saying you look nice.’ Amy Schumer’s views on the topic are similar too, when she reacted to Glamour magazine’s plus size issue, featuring her along with plus-size models. “Plus size is considered size 16 in America, I go between a size 6 and an 8. Glamour magazine put me in their plus size the only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesn’t feel right to me. Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine is not cool.”
The few brands that have taken the initiative of making clothing in a range of sizes are Modcloth, JCPenney, and online store Universal Standard. Mod cloth co-founder Susan Gregg Koger speaks rather proudly when she explains her brand policy about standard or plus sizes. “For me, the ‘aha’ moment was being in our pop-up in San Francisco and seeing someone come in who was new to the brand and asking if there was anything available in plus sizes, and being able to tell them, ‘Oh, the entire store is available in a full range of sizes,” she explained. We believe the ‘In between’ sizes is a very ripe market opportunity. What we are surprised to see is why most retailers aren’t taking it seriously.
