Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
This past Saturday, June 18th, at CurvyCon in New York City, some 550 women were given the chance to do exactly that at a panel discussion called "Dear Retailer."
The panel was billed as an "open conversation with CEOs and designers from top brands," and consisted of representatives from JCPenney, StyleWatch, Plus Model Mag, and plus size retailers Eloquii, GwynnieBee, and Eleven60.
In front of a packed house, the panel began with a conversation among these representatives about topics ranging from the unique challenges of plus size fashion production, to the role bloggers and social media have played in the growth of the industry.
The crowd seemed eager to learn about the realities of the plus size fashion industry, to demand stores provide further inclusion, and to talk about these issues with a crowd of women who were all in the same boat.
The event felt like the ultimate venting session with a few hundred of your closest friends, and comments and questions were frequently met with cheers, verbal affirmations, and vigorous nods of approval.
The designers, marketers, and editors on the panel explained basic facts about the plus size fashion industry that might not be apparent to the average consumer.
"For the curvy woman, 4 yards is what we need of fabric to cover a size 16," Kierra Sheard, the creator of online plus size clothing brand Eleven60, said. She explained why quality plus size garments often seem so expensive. "If we pick a yard of fabric that costs about $20, that right there already makes up a price that we’re used to [$80]. But then you have to give to the brand for their profit, you have to give the brand to cover production, to get shipped overseas."
"Listen, I’m tired of a girdle and I’m tired of that crease," she said as she gestured to her thighs.
She also explained the importance of quality fabrics in plus size fashion. "I’m looking at fabrics that still will give you that controlled fit, because I don’t always want to wear a girdle," she said. "So I’m trying to create fabrics that will pull me in by itself. Listen, I’m tired of a girdle and I’m tired of that crease," she said as she gestured to her thighs, a clear indication of the familiar end-point of thigh-smoothing shapewear. Her confession was met with wild applause, and she seemed to echo a frustration many women in the crowd felt themselves.
The panelists also spoke to the impact bloggers and the online community of plus size fashion consumers have had on their businesses.
Nathan Laffin, JCPenney’s VP of Brand Trend Design for Womens, said "We really use bloggers as a conduit to the larger community, because we can’t speak to every single customer in all 1,000 stores and we can’t speak to the millions of them in the shop at JCP.com," he said. "But we can follow you guys and look to you to help us understand what it is that your community at large is looking for that they’re not finding, as well as help us avoid making some of the mistakes that we’ve seen other retailers make."
"Not everyone is an hourglass. And maybe it’s easier to dress if you have a waist, but not everybody has a waist."
Madeline Jones, the Editor of Plus Model Mag and moderator of the Dear Retailer panel, asked the panelists about models. Specifically, she wanted to know why the plus size fashion industry continues to shy away from truly plus size models, and more often uses women who wear a size 12 — a size only considered "plus" in the modeling world.
Her question led to a discussion about the importance of not only diverse sizes, but diverse shapes, too.
"Not everyone is an hourglass. And maybe it’s easier to dress if you have a waist, but not everybody has a waist," said Lisa Arbetter, the Editor-In-Chief of StyleWatch. "So we try to show women of different shapes throughout the magazine so you can get an idea of what you would look like in that dress."
Laffin said that earlier this year, JCPenney switched tracks — even in their standard marketing the company no longer uses size 6 photo models. "We use real women in straight sizes and plus sizes," he explained. "So in all of our advertising now you’ll see a variety of shapes, a variety of sizes."
The event had promised attendees an opportunity to voice their desires and concerns for the plus size fashion market, and halfway through the event, the floor was opened up to questions from the audience.
The questions thrown at the panelists focused on two things primarily: better representation within the plus size fashion industry, and the problems of the actual shopping experience that plus size shoppers face regularly.
The first questioner commended JCPenney on its expansion, but asked if the company had plans to extend even further into the market for women who are larger than a size 28. "Because, you know, we love gorgeous clothes too," she said.
"It’s always easier at a size 2 to get the ankle length. But at a size 20, I always have to take things to get hemmed in."
Another woman asked retailers to consider the struggles of the petite plus size woman. "I’m 4 foot 9," she said. "My weight has fluctuated from a size 2 to a size 20. It’s always easier at a size 2 to get the ankle length. But at a size 20, I always have to take things to get hemmed in. So it would be lovely for you to expand the market and that would be appreciated because there’s a lot of women who are five foot and shorter."
One audience member asked if retailers could build online shopping platforms that would let consumers filter by their shape so that if, for example, a shopper doesn’t want any dresses that show her arms or tops that show her stomach, she could not have to scroll through those types of garments.
The panelists were receptive to these criticisms and all seemed to agree that, as Jodi Arnold, the VP of Design and Creative Director of plus size fashion brand Eloquii put it, "There’s not one market to fit every shape."
"So what we usually do is if we hear from you that there is a want or need we’ll try it for as long as makes sense."
JCPenney’s Laffin was more direct. "We’re super data driven, and it’s always balance between what we want to do and what makes sense to do for the business," he explained. "So what we usually do is if we hear from you that there is a want or need we’ll try it for as long as makes sense."
He said that sometimes when brands experiment with more diverse sizing, too few shoppers support the programs and it’s no longer viable to keep it on the shelves. His was a talking point long used by standard brands as an explanation for why they won’t branch into any plus sizes.
But the market is changing, said the industry leaders on the stage, and more brands are listening to the demands of plus size shoppers — if for no other reason than that the plus size fashion industry was worth some $17 billion in sales last year and continues to show growth.
When asked about the mainstream fashion industry’s reluctance to embrace plus sizes, GwynnieBee head of marketing Michelle Korchinski-Ogden said, "I think we’re making progress."
"Last night we launched Rachel Antonoff, where she has traditionally been a straight size designer, and she extended her line out into plus size," she explained. "We’re really trying to work with designers so they can expand their lines into plus size. So it is a key part of our mission."
Sheard added that as long as the plus size community continues to thrive, the rest of the fashion industry will follow suit. "We should understand the power that lies in our community as the curvy woman. We are a community that is about embrace. We are about self love. We are about body positivity," she said.
"That love that we have and that we share amongst each other in this community: when people come over from the other communities they should come over and be like ‘Oh my god, the love that they have over there is absolutely amazing. We have to have them over here.’"
The women in the audience nodded in approval and showed that, at the very least, they hoped Sheard was right.