On the Lack of Larger Sizes

This article about Ann Taylor eliminating size 16 clothing from their stores despite the fact that the average American woman is larger than ever (mean: 164 pounds in 2002) offers several rationales for this decision:

(1) Plus-size clothing sales have dropped more than smaller-size clothing sales in the last year (8% vs. 2%, March 2008 to March 2009). I wonder if this is because the recession has hit a segment of the population who happens to be fatter harder than other segments? Or are larger women more likely to deal with tighter finances by reducing clothing purchases compared to smaller women, who may cut back elsewhere?

(2) It costs more to make larger clothing and since materials are the primary cost of clothing (since labor is cheap), this erodes profitability on these garments. While this may seem a bit off, given that an item in one size may not contain that much more fabric than the next size, anyone who has spent any time looking at clothing patterns knows that the issue is not just the fabric in the item, but the entire amount of fabric needed, including the waste. I have definitely seen patterns in which the jump in necessary fabric purchase between one size and the next is quite large since the bigger pattern pieces do not fit on a piece of fabric (which has a given width) in the same way, making much more waste.

(3) The distribution of women's body weights is such that although there are a lot of women who are, say, 200 pounds or more, there are fewer women in any one given high-weight category than in any given lower-weight category. So to capture all of the larger women, you need to offer a lot of different sizes. This is also offered as an explanation for the counter-intuitive fact that larger women, who could benefit greatly from more closely-tailored clothing, often are faced with less flattering but looser clothing options; garments made to fit loosely that incorporate stretch in the fabric can be worn by a wider range of large women. All I can say is it helps to learn to do some basic sewing; to create a more streamlined silhouette, darts are your friend. And larger women may just have to buck it up and spend more on items from specialty stores that cater to their size range.

One thing that isn't mentioned in the article is whether larger women are just less into buying clothes than smaller women and thus even if there were the same number of women who wear a size 16 as wear a size 8, the size 16's shop less and spend less on clothing. I know from personal experience that I enjoy clothes shopping a lot more at 135 pounds than at 155.

It's also a rather sad situation that body politics has pitted plus-sized and extra-small women against each other, with the former sometimes raging against the mere existence of the size 0 or size 00 as a personal insult. Finding clothes that fit can be a challenge for anybody, no matter the weight or size. Even a woman with an utterly enviable weight and size has her own difficulties finding garments that match up with her personal shape.