Comments on: Where are all the plus-size clothes?

By: Bunneh

Bunneh — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:59:44 +0000

Love your designs! I only wish your cute dresses were a bit longer. Not all plus size girls are 5’5″

By: Camilla Jayne

Camilla Jayne — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:31:33 +0000

Where are all the plus size clothes? Sitting with passionate designers like myself trying to break the boutique owners mentality that picking up a plus size label is a good thing! Check it out! http://www.camillajayne.com

By: SB_Australia

SB_Australia — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:59:18 +0000

I wonder if this is Supre…

By: SB_Australia

SB_Australia — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:57:24 +0000

I spend, on average, $3000 annually on clothing for my family. I am plus sized, as is my hubby. The kids are pretty normal as far as their growth charts go. Of the money I spent in 2012, $120 of it was spent in a shop. The rest was spent in online stores & most of these were offshore businesses.

Do I feel bad about contributing to the demise of the bricks & mortar store? Hell no! If I could find what I wanted I would absolutely buy from a shop but when they belligerently refuse to stick clothing that caters to the changing shape of Australia then I will steadfastly refuse to give them my hard earned money!

Today is a prime example. I have joined a gym. It’s a great family owned gym with great staff, a crèche for the kids & a friendly atmosphere. So far I have been wearing baggy t-shirts & shorts as it has been all I could find in my size locally. Last night the gym owner suggested I should look for something “less flowy” as it is hampering my efforts & I would get a whole lot more out of my time in the gym if I wasn’t constantly getting “bunched up” in my clothing (he was super nice about it & said that I’ll be more comfortable if I switch to proper gym clothing). Anyway, I went into two major shopping malls (about an hour away from my country town) & not a single one of the EIGHT sports stores or FIVE department stores stocked gym clothing in anything over a size 16 (& the size 16s were pretty thin on the ground too).

So I came home feeling pretty humiliated & dejected. I got on my computer & googled “plus size sportswear” & millions of results appeared…most of them were US or UK businesses but they all offered pretty great postage rates & a very quick delivery. So, $495 later I now have 2 sets of gym clothes in my current size (AU20) & 2 sets in AU18…that’s $479 that I would have been more than happy to spend in a shop if only they stocked what I wanted!

Now I am looking for a pair of gym shoes & although my local stores stock them I think I will go & try them on in-store to get a good fit but buy them online because I am so loathe to give them ANY money after the shitty day they all contributed to today!

By: Cherry

Cherry — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 06:33:03 +0000

This also highlights the point that most women that claim to be a 16/18 and shop in plus size stores are not actually those sizes but much bigger, and because you can buy 16/18s in standard department stores and because the national average is apparently a 16 (it’s not, it’s closer to a 12/14) women that are fat and wearing plus size 16s/18s, etc think that they really are that size.
But they’re not. They’re not the national average, they are closer to 20/22s.

By: Hi, I'm Kate

Hi, I'm Kate — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 16:34:38 +0000

Well, sizing is only one problem, length is, too, whether one is short or tall. Also fabrics are not pre-shrunk before being made into garments and laundering them renders them too small, either too short, too narrow or -in the case of fabrics rarely being cut on the bias before garment construction– twisted and out of shape after laundering. Zippers don’t last long, buttons commonly fall off after a few wearings, hems come undone and sleeve seams twist. I have lived in the US, UK and many points in between and these problems seem now universal as of about 2000-2001.
As for laundering, that is the biggest problem; many clothes are not made with pre-shrunk cloth and so labeling often indicates that garments should not be dried in a tumble dryer. Not everyone has out door drying areas and in climates like the UK where it is damp and rainy much of the time, this is impractical, and no one wants wet clothes hanging all over the house for days on end.
In terms of climate, most climates are becoming colder. This is especially true in the UK; summers are now as chilly as winters a decade ago, yet fabrics for so-called winter clothes are thinner and thinner. Oftentimes, one can hold a winter garment up to the light and look right through it!

Yes, retailers are seeing profits fall for good reasons. But they are not listening to customers, and in the odd instance that they do, they do not pass this onto their suppliers. It used to be (in the 1960′s) we children got clothes in Autumn and they lasted all year until the next Autumn. Now, if a buyer wants to get clothes like that a sweater or cardigan will cost hundreds and hundreds in any currency. Since when did decent clothes become an exclusive offering to the rich?
I now have a sewing machine, but am having difficulty finding fabric that is very good quality.
All this is a growing problem, and like many consumers I have stopped buying clothes in shops and now only buy on line, but return many things for the reasons listed above.

By: hms

hms — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 06:30:17 +0000

Really? I’ve found its the opposite. I haven’t changed size – I measure myself rather than jump on the scales – and yet I’ve gone up a size in the summer clothes I’ve been trying on.

Some consistency would be good for all of us!

By: Sally Hill

Sally Hill — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 04:59:34 +0000

That’s probably because there are peeps out there LARGER than 16s!

By: karenf

karenf — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:12:51 +0000

You would think that smart businesses would keep tabs on what they sell. I go to a selection of stores (even some of the larger chain stores) that have upto a size 20 and first sizes they run out of are the 18 and 20.. this is also the same when shopping online…. these sizes are commonly “sold out”, when all other sizes are still available.

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:21:55 +0000

Me too. And when they’ve upsized the clothes and the smallest size is still an 8, then the little people fall off the end of the sizes – the smallest one will be miles too big. I used to fit a size 10 and now I’m lucky if I can find a size 6. But I still weight the same.

And it’s not much fun to be picked on at morning tea just because it’s okay to taunt the tiny sized people.