It is high time for the fashion world to realize the changing size of their customers. Fashion designers are still busy making clothes for the slim models. But they should be aware that the women who buy their clothes are not the same. The average size of an American woman has increased to 14.
Being somewhat overweight is an epidemic, that fact is plain for us all to see. Over half of the women in this country are overweight or even clinically obese. It is worse for middle-aged women. In this demographic close to 2/3 are overweight. Another quickly growing demographic is teenage girls. As a result there is a sharp increase in the demand for clothing plus size and larger.
The demand for plus size clothing is increasing tremendously but the supply is insufficient. So there is a lot of opportunity in the business of plus size clothing. Larger people often don’t find their size in the latest fashion clothes. They are not able to follow the latest trends of the fashion industry due to this unavailability.
The fashion industry has adjusted to the growing size of the population by inflating the size of items. What used to be a size 14 may today be a size 12. This gives the customer the idea that they are wearing a small size, without them having to face their larger figure. The result of this change is unhappy customers shopping for plus size fashion clothing.
Recently, there have been some positive changes. A group of American led manufactures of plus size clothing recently finished the biggest sizing study of women since World War 2. This was done so that clothing will fit today’s woman better. Now, fashion show even feature a few plus size models and there are some plus size fashion shows, but these still remain in the background of the overall fashion industry.
The tendency for people to be overweight does not seem to be retreating. In fact, it is forecast that in the future there will be even more overweight people. The fashion industry is aware of this trend in sizing but is not reacting by targeting this segment. Instead of plus size clothing being a specialty market, it instead is becoming the standard to which consumers turn. With such a large customer base, fashion designers should zero in on the special needs and wants of overweight customers.
