New thread on ethical clothing for larger sizes

[*clementine*]

I was thinking about the comment someone wrote. The one where someone said the final consensus was that companies assume people who buy this stuff would be a size 8 or under.
Let's talk about that.

(Let's also keep talking about how expensive they are.

[Leylla]

It's been my experience (and I'm not going on a fat crusade here) that plus size clothing is always the last to upgrade iykwim.

For instance when I was a child, plus size clothes were all drab and "granny" style. There were no junior plus or plus size clothes appropriate for kids. When my mom was a child they didn't exist. All her clothes had to be made my her mother. Now, you can find all sorts of "uber" trendy clothes in plus sizes. Even in adult sizes.

And while organic/free trade/made in USA/ethical clothing might not be a "trend" for some of us, nationwide I think it is a trend, but hopefully one that will stick around. So once again plus size will always be last to change.

But thats just my own opinion and observation. As for the size 8 or less, I think they would at least market to 10-12s, as I think thats probably the most common size in the US.

Steph

[living_organic]

I am a size 24/26 and I would LOVE to be able to have nice ethical clothing! I have thyriod issues that I am starting to fix, but in the meantime I wish I could by those kinds of clothes. The best I can do right now is getting free size batik style clothes, which is cool too, but I think it would be nice to have more options.

[peypeymama]

I think the other problem is that organic fabric yardage is sooo expensive. It makes some of the larger plus sized clothes too cost prohibitive.

I used to be the manager of a plus-sizes at a major department store, and its really hard to please everyone who is plus sized, because it covers all ages, different shapes, and different lifestyles. The entire upstairs of the store had different trends for missy sizes and we only had a little tiny area downstairs to represent the same trends. Pathetic! It has gotten better, but only slightly.

Nationally the average size is creeping up and up, why aren't the clothing companies starting to cater to plus sizes????

[MelanieMC]

I was the one who made that statement in the other thread.

I guess I can kinda see where some of the companies are coming from. I think that if I was a thin, size 2 (who had always been thin) person who ate organic and only bought natural & ethical clothing, I would make those same assumptions. I'm not saying its right, but I do understand it.

Also, most (if not all) companies that make/sell organic or ethical clothing are small privately owned business. They don't mass produce their clothing, so they only make things in a few selected sizes. I'm sure that many of them never get requests for larger sizes, so maybe they don't even think about it. If they have no real demand for this clothing why would they go to the time/expense to make larger sizes that may not sell? (this comment is mostly about the small online stores where the owner is making most of the items herself). I think we need to make it known to these companies that there is a market out there for ethical plus sized clothing. If we don't start letting them know this, we will never see it happen.

As for the expense of this type of clothing - It's outrageous! Can you imagine getting rid of all you clothing that isn't ethical and trying to replace it with items from stores like bluefish? It would cost thousands just to get a small sized wardrobe (with sweaters that cost $250!!!) . Add to that the fact that if they did make plus sizes you know the cost would be even higher (I've never understood this. There is no way a size 20 uses so much more fabric than an 8 that it should cost $10 more!!!).

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by MelanieMC

There is no way a size 20 uses so much more fabric than an 8 that it should cost $10 more!!!).

Actually going from a size 8 to a size 20 could easily add in a yard of fabric and even non-organics in fabric stores often go for $8+ a yard. There are also fabric usage considerations where the maker might be able to get 10 size 8 shirts out of a whole bolt (cheapest way to buy fabric) but only 7.75 size 20 shirts, thus maybe not being able to use the full bolt, this sort of problem is aggravated if they only make one of the larger size.

So two things have to happen. First, consumers have to tell the makers of these clothes that there is a market. Let them know that it is worth redoing their layouts and diagrams to get larger sizes on a regular basis.

Secondly, the clothing makers need to simply anticipate the market. They need to go ahead and make the clothes and advertise them as available and they need to just go ahead and make as many of the clothes as they need to not lose money in wastage so they don't have to charge more.

[peypeymama]

Originally Posted by MelanieMC

There is no way a size 20 uses so much more fabric than an 8 that it should cost $10 more!!!).

It's not the size 16 - 20's that are so much different it's when you start going up from there. 18 - 24 is a standard size run for plus size there is an extreme difference between a size 8 and a size 24.

Once we got in some leather pants and they were priced at $99 bucks for all the sizes. We thought it would be more economical to buy the size 24, just because of the amount of leather in the garment.

[*clementine*]

But really, then baby clothes should be butt ass cheap.

[peypeymama]

Originally Posted by jillkuster

But really, then baby clothes should be butt ass cheap.

That's what I think... especially shoes!