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A look at the larger side of life

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:06:52 > A quick thought

 The ‘Inbetweenies’…A Personal Shopper’s gripe.

There has been a revolution!

Fashion companies got together a few years ago and agreed that the sizing of their clothing was all wrong! They could not understand why women were complaining that they were unable to fit into their clothes ranges anymore.
These retailers began to notice women were not falling into what they saw as standardised sizing ranges – they were not taking into the fact that the sizing tables they were using right up to the present day were based on the measurements of 1950’s women.
A big public hoohah ensued and a sizing survey was instigated. Sizeuk collaborated
With a number a major fashion companies to devise a way of recording the measurements of the average woman today – they discovered that women were bigger and getting bigger and it was not as simple as putting it down to a major growth in chocolate-eating – it was due to many differing lifestyle changes.
The idea behind this was to standardise sizing here in the UK, eventually Europe and the rest of the world – as nearly everything is manufactured worldwide this idea is extremely valid.

Taking all this into account – the money and time having been spent – why is everything still so disproportionate? A woman with curves whether she is size 14 or 20 should be served equally by fashion retailers and in certain circumstances they are - by the highstreet in particular but going a step further from the highstreet into design-based manufacturers - let alone designer labels it’s sad to say that a shopping trip can still be very frustrating.
Buyers are admitting larger sizes sell much more quickly but they’re still not buying larger sizes evenly throughout their ranges – especially in department stores. There is still such a stigma on stocking larger sizes particularly in higher-priced or designer ranges that we have been left with - if it’s over a size 14 stick it on the 3rd floor syndrome.
Now, I do not have a gripe with the efforts being made by some major fashion retailers in trying to stock a larger size range especially stores like Debenhams who are one of the few trying to include a larger size assortment throughout their assortment as well as stocking specialist plus-size ranges like their own ‘Gorgeous’ collection.
M&S too have made that extra effort in including a larger size range into their better collections – although I am not impressed by their plus-size collection which is still very boring.

My gripe is with the incorrect presumption that if you are a size 14 or just over you have no wish to wear higher-priced fashionable clothing and that you are happy to be forced into taking that extra escalator ride up to the next floor get what you want.

This problem strangely enough intensifies when a woman’s size is in-between standard sizing of 8-14 and plus sizing 16-18 upwards.

The question is – What is standard and what is plus these days?

I would have thought this would have been worked out but from experience as a working personal shopper it has not.
The most popular size is size 14 so you would think that this is still under the ‘standard size’ heading – well maybe not. Some plus-size companies – especially Italian ones start at a size 14 but are generally not bought by buyers who prefer to start their buy at size 16 – sometimes 18 because it is a plus-size company meant for a plus size department.

The problem arises with a standard size 14 from a normal fashion label – as it is a popular size you would think buyers would buy more – but no! As it is looked at as a larger size from a fashion company a buyer will select the least amount of it – so you would end up with an average buy of – two of sizes 8,10,12 and only one of 14.

There we have the problem.

It gets even worse with size 16 – almost looked at these days as a plus size and bought in such small quantities if you do not buy right at the beginning of the season you will definitely not get enough choice.
Size 18 is the most difficult size overall. Regarded as a plus-size it is extremely difficult to get any at all in standard fashion labels stocked by retailers even though most of the labels go up to size 18! The problem is proportions, if bought as a plus-size it can be too big for an average woman.

Hobbs have just announced that they will be increasing their size range to size 18 which is great as their clothing would suit a more curvier figure – let’s hope they might see fit to go further and stock a size 20 one day.

So here is the dilemma – if you are a size 14, 16 or 18 do you fall into standard sizing or are you categorized these days as a plus size? As you are by far treated the in the worst way by stores especially if you want to go off the highstreet and invest in better labels – it is a very strange conundrum and something that should have been sorted out when the sizeuk conclusions were released.

UGH