I’ve grown increasingly frustrated with how brands can rise through our size inclusivity rankings by tokenistically featuring one mid-size or plus-size model, only to not produce a single garment that would fit someone at the top end of mid-size, or in the plus-size bracket entirely. Some brands who actually make clothes for bigger bodies expressed their frustration to us, on this topic, and with good reason. We’ve seen tokenism season after season, where the same few curve supermodels appeared on the runway, and if they weren’t available, the brand would return to 100% straight-size.
According to our recent survey of almost 700 consumers, almost half (48%) feel pressure to lose weight, and of those, more cited challenges with sizing when shopping (63%) as the source of this pressure compared to runway shows (36%). We tried to highlight this in the FW26 Size Inclusivity report, by tracking sizing availability on brands’ e-commerce sites, or the site of their biggest stockists, to see if runway representation always equals sizing representation in-store.
You can read our findings on this in the main report. But, in the spirit of primary research, I took a trip to Bond Street. Based on the size range on their website, one leading luxury label’s sizing extends to a US 20. I visited the London flagship, and asked if they had a US 20, “for my sister”, and the maximum size available in-store was a US 12. That said, the sales assistant offered that I could order bigger sizes, and for clients ordering after the runway show, pieces could be specially made up to a 20. Another label, on its e-commerce page, shows it goes up to a US 16, with the biggest sizes sold out (a common theme we found in our research). However, upon visiting the store, I was told the maximum sizes available were US 12-14, but “some things had a bigger fit”.
Creative director and content creator Abisola Omole, aka ‘Abi Marvel’, who I met in Copenhagen last year on a CPHFW x Vogue Business panel discussing size inclusivity, already carries out this kind of research. In her “Plus-Size and Passing” series on Instagram, she goes into luxury stores and finds garments to actually try on and wear, as a US 16-18. While runway representation is lacking across the majority of labels, and there’s a perception that bigger sizes aren’t available in stores, she wants to show that many brands do cater for bigger sizes. Marvel recently visited Dior to try on Jonathan Anderson’s debut collection, finding pieces that would fit across menswear and womenswear.
When we speak, she is on her way to Chanel, to test-drive Matthieu Blazy’s first collection as a plus-size consumer, now the frenzy has died down. “Chanel is a good example of a brand that does bigger sizes. Obviously, they’re not perfect. But even just today, I was trying a lot of 50s and 52s [US 16-18], which I might not have expected,” she says. Her aim is to show plus-size shoppers that it’s possible.