Plus-size women AND shopping, TV, fashion
Plus-size women are getting their time in front of the television camera these days. And many people think it’s about time. An estimated 62 percent of all American women age 18 and older wear a size 12 or larger.
Now, most women do not consider a size 12 plus size. The point is, more women are seeing on television what they see when they look in the mirror.
I wrote about this in today’s You! section. One benefit of more exposure for plus sizes could be more fashion choices. But the plus-size fashion issue is prickly.
According to an Associated Press story, apparel in general is suffering because of the economy, but plus-size has been particularly hard hit.
NPD Group, a market research company, reports the overall women’s apparel business is down about 5 percent and plus-size is down almost 10 percent from the 12 months ending in May 2009 compared to the same time the year before.
It’s hard to account for the dip at a time when more than half of American women are estimated to wear plus-sizes, generally considered size 14 and up, but analysts have some theories, according to the Associated Press.
“The stigma still continues despite the majority of the population is overweight,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD. The stigma means some retailers don’t want to lure overweight customers and send out the “wrong” image, experts said, and the customers themselves may feel put off by many stores.
Several years ago, stores had made an effort to expand the plus-size market, but they have basically abandoned that during the recession, Cohen said.
“They’ve made feeble attempts at going after it, but now that business is challenged, it is first thing knocked out of the store,” he said. “Even though they built it, this was not a field of dreams for the retailer.”
And there’s also the uncomfortable connection between obesity and lower incomes, which might help explain the dip. A study of nationally representative data on American workers by two professors at Stanford University found that obese workers at the same level of job experience, education and gender earned less than their thinner colleagues.
Christie L. Nordhielm, associate professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, said that if overweight people are paid less, it would make sense that they would cut down on buying clothes.
Still, some retailers are going forward with the plus-size customer in mind.
“She wants to look good, feel fashionable and look good in clothes. And she wants fashion,” said Nicole Fischelis, group vice president of ready-to-wear fashion at Macy’s. “We offer the same trends we address with our regular-size customer.”
Marianne Stone, divisional vice president in women’s apparel for JC Penney, said the store’s plus-size business has increased over the last years, but wouldn’t give specific numbers. She did say lines like Unity and nicole by Nicole Miller were added and that the store offers plus-size customers “the same fashion looks, same fashion trends that we have in missy.”
“We are really doing whatever we can to offer this customer fashion,” she said “She’s hungry for it.”
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Oh dear. “She’s hungry for it”? Did anybody else cringe at this statement? Is that a Freudian slip?