65% of female shoppers are buying plus sizes, but major chains haven’t been acknowledging the potential of tapping into that market—until now.
There are a lot of celebrities attaching their names to plus-sized brands, and it’s becoming more and more difficult for those same stores to ignore customers who would be more inclined to shop there if plus sizes were made readily available.
Actress Melissa McCarthy introduced her clothing line, Seven7, back in August—which has sizes ranging from 4 to 28 and is available on the Home Shopping Network. Stores like Nordstrom and Macy’s, however, only offer the plus-sized options, and McCarthy is actively campaigning to bring the full line to those retailers. Actress Rebel Wilson also launched a plus-sized line through Torrid just last month.
Changes are happening not just in stores, but online as well. Fashion websites are covering a wider range of plus-sized options, and plus-sized fashion bloggers are getting well-deserved notice. Even The Mary Sue’s affiliate Styleite is relaunching as a new body-positive site called Runway Riot, which is a welcome and awesome change!
Designer Rachel Roy, who is preparing to add a plus-sized option to her own line, explained why it’s beneficial for retailers to take advantage:
Look at social media, look at movies, TV, music. The difference is that people are starting to actually pay attention to it, talk about it, and act on it now.
It’s about time.
(via Bloomberg, image via Getty Images)
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