With recent changes being made to stores around the country, plus-size options for both clothes and dresses have been moved online rather than being available in store.
Because of changes in supply and demand, stores are not seeing as much need to keep plus-size options in many of their department locations, moving a majority of their retail to their online website.
According to Carroll News, “Many retail clothing companies have taken different measures to include or not include plus-size clothing options in their stores and online. These decisions have come from recent changes in supply and demand.”
As of May 2022, retail stores such as Old Navy “have not seen the expected demand for extended size products in our stores,” according to Refinery29.
“In 2023, stores like H&M added plus-size options to their in-store collections. However, the largest size in select H&M stores is still only 2X and the largest option online is 4X,” Refinery29 said.
With these changes, it doesn’t make sense as to why stores will advertise “one-size fits all” when they do have the options available for all body types in their stores.
According to Modern Retail, “70% of women in the U.S. wore a size 14 or larger in 2016. Sales for plus-size apparel grew by 18% in 2021 — three times faster than the rest of the women’s market, and yet, only 19% of women’s apparel sold in 2021 was considered plus-size.”
But it is not just everyday attire that fits this issue.
With prom season approaching, teen girls are out searching for their prom dresses and are shocked with the lack of sizing options on both ends of the sizing scale, increasing body dysmorphia.
“So many women cannot purchase fashion because it’s not available to them,” according to Retail Dive.
While many prom dress shops and boutiques have a variety of dresses in a wide range of sizes in stores, they lack both extremely petite and plus-size options. Furthermore, most of their selection is online to make room for different dress options, like colors and patterns on the rack.
According to Retail Dive, “there’s a lot of unmet demand from women that are not size 0 to 12, from ages of 15 to 65 — from all women.”
It is important for stores to carry a large variety of sizes of clothing in stores, rather than just online, to meet all customer needs for people of all body types.
It shouldn’t have to be a constant inconvenience for someone more petite or considered plus size when shopping.
“But the lack of size standards and prevailing notions of aesthetics continue to shut out women who aren’t within even the industry’s loosely established ranges. And many brands, especially in couture, still hesitate to align with a diversity of body types,” Retail Dive said.