Understanding Plus Size population in Indian Fashion Industry

Understanding Plus Size bodies in terms of the Fashion Industry Chhavipriya Gaur Semester 6, batch of 2020 Fashion Design department National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi

Abstract: Shopping in a store which caters to both small and plus sizes can be a challenging task for a plus size woman, since it is hard to find a well-fitting garment in their size which is available in all designs and colours, and is affordable (in comparison to its durability considering ‘chaffing’ in plus size figures).

The following research paper draws attributes of correlation between the plus size population and their needs, and, the fashion industry and their supply. It aims to highlight the problems faced by plus size women while shopping for garments that are in trend, durable, and well-fitting, in the mainstream brand stores; in comparison to smaller sizes. The paper studies the different types of body classification used by several brands worldwide to produce plus sizes; as well as identifies what it means to be plus size, specifying the problems the industry faces with this pool of customer. The study encompasses three research methods: Interview/questionnaire filled by selfidentified plus size women on their needs and problems faced; examining options of a woman of size provided by several main stores in Delhi NCR, consisting market survey; and analytical study of several articles, and blogs on the same. The paper settles a foundation for further studies regarding psychology of plus size women, body perception, industry understanding of sizes, and representation.

Key Words: Plus size, fat, durability, women of size, curvy, apparel, non-wear, satisfaction, retail, body image

Objectives: 1. Analysing how the several segments of fashion industry and media understand plus size.

2. Discussing reasons of the lack of understanding of different body types.

3. Causes and effects of lack of plus size fashion availability.

4. Image building of a plus size woman.

5. Physical attributes of differences in plus size and small size fashion.

6. Psychology of plus size women.

7. Disparity and durability of plus size garments.

Introduction:

In the following Chapter we will be addressing the misconceptions related to plus size bodies and how they are viewed by public, media, and apparel industry; moving on to discussing what plus size market is really looking for.

Since a long time, plus size bodies and obese bodies have been viewed as one and the same, causing a number of psychological disparities among said individuals. These views have been forced upon to the society by media. An overweight body is seen as an unhealthy body, a body that needs to be worked upon till it fits the mould of societal standards of physical attractiveness. This makes a person’s body, a work in progress notwithstanding whether it is actually being worked upon or not. We have come to believe that plus size individuals feel unattractive and thus will work to the end to satisfy our hetero-normative gaze. It takes us to conclude that an individual doesn’t probably need products that fit this work in progress; or that if this body which is overweight, plus size, or obese, will eventually change; what need is there to cater to it entirely. What use is in forming a market for people who seek to change their body eventually? This conclusion stands on the belief that overweight people are inherently unhealthy.

In 2016, University of California, Santa Barbara concluded in a study that BMI; i.e. Body Mass Index; if used as the only driving factor has misclassified 75 million Americans as heart healthy since it basis the individual health solely upon their weight, height, and age. Whereas the opposite was sought to be true. More than 35% of overweight individuals are actually heathy in terms of their blood sugar content, heart heath, and cholesterol levels while more than half of the average of thin sized population is prone to heart health problems. This brings us to discuss the real implications of the Body Mass Index and its structure. BMI is a calculation used to measure body fat based on the ration of their weight and height; to further conclude whether a person can be deemed as being healthy or not. It defines what someone’s ideal weight should be at a particular height. Adolphe Quetelet (Creator of BMI) mentioned that it is simply for data collection and not to calculate body fat since it ignores certain key factors that are needed to do so, such as; fat distribution and bone density. Since it cannot calculate these factors, BMI has in numerous instances classified athletes as unhealthy because of different density of their muscle and bones.

The second misconception is how we view the psychology of a plus size individual. The most common error we make, as the Associated Press wrote in 2013, “'many think 'Oh, she doesn't want to draw attention, live life, date, be confident, wear fitted clothes with bold colours and patterns,' when the exact opposite is true”[CITATION Tie15 \l 16393 ]. This pool of individuals has been long forced to make do with limited options and have come to associate more with accessories than with garments. Plus Size women have a huge population but less than half the consumption of fashion goods compared to smaller sizes not only because of lack of options but also because of a

stressful shopping experience. A few misfits are seen to cause breakdown and leads plus size women to return from stores empty handed and disheartened from the unpleasant experience. This also discourages them from shopping more often. A surprisingly huge percentage of the industry side-lines the plus size woman as a potential customer basing their focus on smaller sizes.

The mainstream media is no kinder to the plus size body making it the ‘butt of all jokes’ in several instances in ‘comedies’ not understanding how such a portrayal can affect the viewer. It becomes harder and harder to idolise a person with plus size body due to misconceptions of character created by the media even in cases where size shouldn’t matter at all. The fashion industry has also made it very hard to bring inclusivity in the market by time and time again portraying unbelievably thin (and photoshoped on occasions) models screaming that this is the ideal body type. It has made fashion to be a source of anxiety rather than wonder and joy.

“High fashion for fat women has never been a consideration prior to the last couple years, and it truly all started from a realty television show entitled Project Runway.

Contestant Ashely Nell Tipton, a first of her kind, was both a plus-size woman and insisted on designing for plus-size women. She won this particular competition targeted toward an industry that values thinness, and the ripple effect of her win has been seen in numerous fashion shows across the world, featuring the full-figured woman in all her glory[ CITATION CKe16 \l 16393 ].”

All these factors raise a big question on how fashion industry treats its plus size customers. It brings to the surface, the lack of understanding of plus size bodies and the short-comings of brands trying to sell inclusive clothing.

Review Of Literature:

In the following chapter we will discuss the shortcomings of our ways in retailing clothes for plus size population via going through the basic life cycle of a garment (1) Designing and manufacturing, (2) Purchase, and (3) Discard.

Designing and manufacturingDue to stigma around plus size bodies and our obsession with thinness as an ideal od beauty, many key role players in the fashion industry have expressed their distaste in designing for plus size population. In an online news article titled “Lagerfeld's High Street Split” (2004) for British Vogue, Karl Lagerfeld, best known as head designer of Chanel and Fendi, expressed his disapproval that a line he produced for H&M was offered in plus sizes. In an article he stated “What I designed was fashion for slender and slim people. That was the original idea”.[ CITATION Ipa15 \l 16393 ] Our misunderstanding about the physiology and psychology of plus size bodies also leads designers to create unsuitable designs for this section of consumers. According to Oprahmag, the industry has been for several decades clinging to its old gospel of rules that they follow while designing for plus size women. These rules state that ‘fat’ people do not want to wear body fitting clothes, show their arms, legs or cleavage, or be the centre of attention, thus the unflattering loose potato sack style with cheap fabrics that sit unfashionably on one’s body. It sends the immediate opposite message compared to what the social media revolution on body positivity has brought about. The demands are changing and the fashion industry is still miles behind.

Many even argue that putting plus size consumers on the same priority and bar as the small size consumers is a sign of promoting obesity. These people actively ignore that obesity is not the same as plus size, nor does it come with the same implications on health. And if for a moment we do consider that they are one and the same, in what case unflattering, ill-fitting and ugly clothes have ever actively encouraged anyone to lose weight. And hasn’t design always been about adapting to the consumer needs and not something that forces you to change and fit in a standard to be able to benefit from it.

And designing for plus size following the wrong rules isn’t all that is wrong with our protocols. It actively involves the manufacturing process which uses much standardised ways of manufacturing a garment.

An apparel manufacturer will develop a grading system for its target customer based upon available anthropometrical data. Grading assumes

that, as one key area of the body increases, another corresponding area also increases. This, however, is not the case for plus sizes that, as their girth measurement increases, do not necessarily become taller or have increased length of limbs and torso [ CITATION SPA06 \l 16393 ]. The fault also lies in the new so called plus size body campaigns that portray only flat stomached plus size women further perpetuating wrong misconceptions of how standard sizes should change when we move up on the size charts.

Even while very generously showing plus size women in body positive images, we sample and select the few with flatter stomachs thus further idolising a small section of women and again creating a disparity between real and more abundant section of consumers and what industry wants to see only as an aesthetic. It is as if we continuously want to forget what real bodies with fat, round bellies and flabby arms look like.

The economic reasons suggested by these retailers are increased costs for pattern drafting and for fabric costs to make plus size apparel. These reasons only explain that it may cost more per unit to produce plus size apparel. These factors do not hold up in a broader economic sense considering that plus size women make up the majority market segment of apparel and would be considered a sizable missed opportunity for business revenue. These reasons also perpetuate the widely held view that plus size women do not have money, which is not the case[ CITATION Cli10 \l 16393 ].

PurchaseShopping experience plays a huge role in understanding everything we are doing wrong while interacting with a plus size consumer. Starting from trying to find clothes that fit to trial rooms, shopping is overall an overwhelmingly anxiety inducing experience for them. Studies suggest that two or three bad trials can cause a mental break down and lead to customer exiting the store empty handed. Underhill indicates that women are more likely to try on clothes before making a purchase; however, many avoid fitting rooms because they feel negatively about themselves after trying on clothes [ CITATION Hel15 \l 16393 ].

Plus-size girls reported difficulty finding apparel that fit in the styles they wanted. The mothers of the plus-size girls showed concern over the social and psychological effect that apparel shopping was having on their daughters [ CITATION Rom14 \l 16393 ].

Plus size women also tend to not shop with regular size peers as it only adds up to the anxiety of being ‘fat’. The more the number of trials, less is the

chance of purchase or even satisfaction. Marketing to women of size is also very clearly a shame game. Many stores and brands use beautiful, flatstomached models in their advertisements, mannequins, and sales representatives, giving a false sense of beauty in their sales technique. The flat-stomach is a normative societal standard that is only attainable when women of size squeeze themselves into shapewear, a restricting undergarment used to smooth the figure, designed to create a more flattering figure [ CITATION Doc17 \l 16393 ].

The NPD group conducted a survey on plus-size women and found that 63% report shopping for plus sized clothing is more stressful than shopping for regular clothing. Additionally, this survey uncovered that 62% of plus-size women have a hard time finding the style of clothing they desire and 56% report that finding clothing in the quality that is offered to women who wear standard sizes is difficult (NPD, 2012). While there are clothing stores that cater specifically to plus-size women, many state that they desire to shop in mainstream retail clothing stores, which offer both plus-size and non-plus size clothing[ CITATION Tie15 \l 16393 ]. It says a lot about how inclusivity doesn’t mean a separately focusing on a group; more like including another segment into the existing ones.

DiscardSatisfaction or dissatisfaction can bring forth two main outcomes; apparel non-wear and discard. Non-wear refers to a state where the garment sits in the wardrobe avoiding discard for mostly emotional and other subjective reasons and yet is not worn to its full potential. This means that the consumer has saved the product despite their dissatisfaction with it. Discard whereas refers to rejected clothing which is usually an outcome of damage, but in case of plus size consumers, it can also be an outcome of garment eventually becoming ill-fitting. The differences between non-wear and discard also creates a huge disparity while studying apparel satisfaction through discard since not all dissatisfactory products are discarded.

However, despite this, the record shows that plus size women discard clothes more often and frequently than smaller sizes due to faster wear and tear and unsustainable fabric choices.

Questionnaire:

1 What is your age?

16-20 20-24 24-28 28-30 above 30 2 What size category would you put yourself in?

S-M L XL XXL XXXL 3 How often do you shop for clothing in a month?

Once Twice Thrice More than Thrice 4 Approximately how much do you spend on clothes every month? more than 10,000 3000 INR 5000 INR 10,000 INR INR 5 Occupation College School Student Student Entrepreneur Job Unemployed 6 Is your shopping experience pleasant and satisfactory?

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never 7 Do you end up finding affordable clothes your size?

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never 8 Do you find all the styles in your size which are available in smaller sizes?

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never Question 9-14 rate how difficult it is to find a fit in each of the following (1= easy & 5= very difficult) 9 Jeans 1 2 3 4 5 10 Shirts and T-shirts 1 2 3 4 5 11 Dresses 1 2 3 4 5 12 Tops and Blouses 1 2 3 4 5 13 Underwear 1 2 3 4 5 14 Bras 1 2 3 15 How long do your clothes usually last in your wardrobe? more than 2 6 months- 1 years 1-2 years year 3-5 months 16 What is your main reason for discarding clothes?

Loss of appeal Out of trend Damaged chaffing*

4

5

1-2 months Distorted fit

* chaffing is rubbing of skin i.e. thighs together causing the inner leg area of garment to tear

17 Are you aware of body shape classifications such as hourglass, apple, pear, etc?

Yes No 18 What brands do you prefer shopping at?

H&M Zara Forever 21 Forever New Lifestyle Westside Pantaloons

Mark and Spencer Levi’s And Shopper's Stop Other (specify): 19 Do you feel that garments available in plus sizes are more ill fitting than smaller ones?

Strongly Strongly agree agree Maybe disagree Disagree 20 Are you aware of clothing brands that cater especially to plus sizes?

No Yes (Specify):

Analysis: The following is the outcome of the survey conducted via google forms of about 70 people picked at random i.e. diverse sizes, ages, and incomes.

Population size S-M 20

10

XXXL

L

Population size

0

XXL

XL

Fig1. Suggests the possible representation of demographic on how sizes are distributed among the general population. Plus sizes are seemingly more than average small and mediums.

L

Less than Once Once a month Twice a month Thrice a month More than Thrice

S-M

Less than Once Once a month Twice a month Thrice a month More than Thrice

XXL

Less than Once Once a month Twice a month Thrice a month More than Thrice

XL

Less than Once Once a month Twice a month Thrice a month More than Thrice

Fig2. (Bottom) Represent how frequent people of different sizes shop for clothes. Notice the difference in the percentage of people who opted for ‘thrice a month’ in size S-M and size XXL or XXXL.

XXXL

Less than Once Once a month Twice a month Thrice a month More than Thrice

70% 60% 50%

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never

40% 30% 20% 10% 0% S-M

L

XL

XXL

XXXL

Fig3. Represents the percent of people who have pleasant and satisfactory shopping experiences in mainstream retail stores. Dissatisfaction increases as we move towards the experience of the population of plus size.

60% 50% 40%

Always Usually Sometimes Rarely Never

30% 20% 10% 0% S-M

L

XL

XXL

XXXL

Fig4. Represents the amount of time people of different sizes find clothes that fit perfectly. The ease in finding a good fit continuously decreases as we go from size S-M

to XXXL Fig5. Represents how women of bigger sizes find it harder to buy clothes that fit better when compared to smaller sizes. The disparity is mainly in Tops and Blouse and Bras (become harder to find), compared to T-shirts and Shirts (easier to find).

Chaffing Damaged Distorted Fir Loss of Appeal Out of Trend

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Strongly agree

agree

maybe

disagree

strongly disagree

Fig6. Represents the reasons of discard of garments in most cases.

Fig7. Represents the number of people who agree or disagree when asked if they feel that plus size clothing is more ill-fitting than smaller sizes.

Conclusion: The fashion industry could make the biggest revolutions when it comes to body image and positivity, become the harbingers of change in the community and how we view and perceive beauty. Acceptance is the first step to inclusivity and for that it is important to acknowledge the differences in different bodies so to understand them better. It is understood that creating garments that fit a larger variety of population will bring forth its own series of challenges, but that in itself is the sign of growth. It is very important for the industry to utilise the plus size market as a potential consumer just as important as the small size consumers who have been far more glamourized. Because in a war between making fashion more inclusive and manufacturing what is easy to manufacture, the plus size community questions whether it is really worth catering an industry that fails to fulfil the basic agenda of a market; to supply what is demanded.

Limitations :The data collected and concluded through the aforementioned survey has its shortcomings due to the fact the demographic of the population that has contributed to the survey does not accurately represent the demographic of the real world population.

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