The Right to Size

It’s Cyber Monday, and you want to hit “refresh” on your wardrobe. Your powerful thighs have spent the summer and fall absolutely obliterating the insides of every pair of jeans and pants you own. It’s time to order a new pair, so you spend a few hours scouring the internet for the perfect ones.

You find them. They’re on sale. You can’t believe your eyes when you read the size chart. 

The clouds part, heaven opens, sending rays of warm light down to kiss your grateful face.

They have your size in stock!

Ok, you snap yourself back to reality.

You triple check the size chart. You get out your tape measure, making sure your hips haven’t mutated since last week, praying they’ll fit into those cute pants. You order the biggest size available, crossing your fingers. You wait weeks for the package to arrive, and once it finally does, you tear open the box because you can’t wait another second. Anticipation builds as you rip the plastic cover apart. You take out the pants and let them unfurl. You size them up and think to yourself, “Hey, these might actually work.” You slip your right foot in, and reality becomes suddenly, painfully clear when you pull up on the first leg—well, when you can’t entirely pull up the first leg. 

Not accepting defeat, you slip in your other foot and pull up the second leg. 

Now the shimmying commences, followed by little hoppity-hops. You will get the pants over your hips if it’s the last thing you do.

You don’t. You can’t. 

You let the pants drop to the ground, heartbroken. You roll them back up and return them to the plastic cover. You place them back in the box and vow to actually return them this time to get your money back. 

Months later, you find that box in the back of your closet, where all unfulfilled fashion dreams go to die. You sigh, internally beating yourself up, knowing the pants are long past their 90-day return deadline. You’ll never get those $60 back.

Sound familiar? 

So many women have their own experiences being let down by fashion brands. 

“There’s nothing more discouraging to a plus-size person than ordering the size they always order, and then it arrives and it’s too small,” said Ann McAlexander, plus-size woman and lifelong clothing wearer. “It’s completely the wrong size, and I have to send it back.”

The average American woman falls between size 16 to 18. You heard correctly—average. So why is it that so many stores only offer up to size 14? 67 percent of American women wear above a size 14. 

Fatphobia and fashion have been entangled since the industry’s conception. While the body positivity and body neutrality movements have gained traction in social discourse in recent years, the fashion industry still promotes thin bodies as the ideal. 

Industry leaders rarely make public remarks regarding the exclusion of plus sizes from their offerings, but consumers receive the message that plus-size women aren’t as welcome as thinner women to participate in fashion. 

Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was not shy about discussing his company’s exclusion of fat people.

“Candidly, we go after the cool kids,” said Jeffries during a 2006 interview with Salon. “We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either,"

At the time of the interview, Abercrombie & Fitch only offered women’s sizes up to 10. Competitors like H&M and American Eagle offered up to sizes 16 and 18, respectively. Today, Abercrombie & Fitch offers up to size 14, whereas American Eagle offers up to size 24 and H&M up to size 26. 

Let’s talk about brands that solely target plus-size women. 

While such outlets fill the void left by straight-size-only outlets, many of them leave women disappointed due to substandard offerings. Plus-size-only outlets are notorious for producing outdated looking pieces and using fabric patterns that are too hideous even for upholstery. 

Torrid is one of the worst offenders. Looking through their website, you would think the same cold-shoulder tops donned by trendsetters in 2010 had beaten the odds and maintained their popularity over the course of a decade and through the entirety of 2021. 

Spoiler: They did not.

However, that hasn’t stopped Torrid from peddling them to plus-size women, often with exorbitant price tags, like this monstrosity that retails for $49.50. 

Torrid remains profitable since it has such a chokehold on plus-size women who are too young and have too much self-respect to be seen in anything from Lane Bryant, Torrid’s ever-so-slightly frumpier cousin that offers sizes 10 to 40. 

Some brands attempt to cater to the masses, offering a large array of sizes, but do not offer the same styles to straight-size and plus-size women. 

Dressbarn has always separated its straight-size from plus-size offerings. Formerly a brick-and-mortar retailer, Dressbarn moved all sales exclusively online in December 2019. Before that time, when you walked into one of their stores, you would turn left to shop for straight sizes and right for plus sizes. Rarely would you find the same piece offered in both size ranges. Today, Dressbarn’s straight sizes are available under the “Clothing” tab of its website. You have to click the “Plus” tab, which is separate from the “Clothing” tab, to access plus sizes. 

Are plus-size pieces not clothing? 

Even when a brand offers all pieces in a broad array of sizes, clothes shopping can still be frustrating due to the cut and proportions of different pieces. 

“It’s one thing to say you offer the size,” said Ann McAlexander. “It’s another thing for the pieces to actually be sized appropriately.”

People may have an idea of what their size is, but it rarely holds true from retailer to retailer. 

Ah, what it must be like to be a man and trust that the waist of a pair of pants will correspond to the size listed on the tag, since it’s an actual unit of measurement. Paradise. 

Sizing is extremely varied across brands. Someone who wears a size 12 at one store may not fit in a 14 at another. Beyond numbered sizing, many stores label their clothes S or small, M or medium, L or large, XL or extra large, etc., which introduces more variability to the existing kerfuffle. 

Even within a single brand, sizing is often inconsistent. Sarah McAlexander, a Houston, Texas, resident and lifelong clothing wearer, loves shopping but gets discouraged trying on different styles in the same size. Some fit great. Others have to be traded up or down a size though she only has the one body that doesn’t change between try-ons. 

There is some hope. The fashion industry is slowly improving. Incrementally, more and more brands are extending their size offerings. Many retailers are also beginning to offer different cuts of staple items, like jeans, to better fit women with a variety of body shapes. 

Brands like American Eagle now offer curvy pants, which are advertised to women with waists measuring more than 10 inches smaller than their hips. Such women have long agonized over gaping waistbands since they had to buy a size too large for their waist measurement to account for their fuller hips and seat. 

“I really appreciate American Eagle’s approach,” said Sarah McAlexander. “It goes beyond just straight or plus sizes. Offering curvy cuts shows me that they understand that women’s bodies have curves, which not many stores do. I’ve always had trouble finding jeans that fit my hips correctly, but I can now find good ones there.”

Universal Standard is a trailblazer in the industry. It offers all its pieces from size 00 to 40 and also carries different “curve” and “classic” jean cuts. Universal Standard’s website features models representing different races, ages, sizes, body shapes and gender presentations. 

Universal Standard’s co-founders Polina Veksler and Alex Waldman eloquently express their brand vision on their website.

“We wanted a size 40 to shop in the same way as a size 00 – using style as her only filter,” wrote Veksler and Waldman, “and we wanted to be the ones to make that happen. Our goals were lofty; some may say idealistic, some may even say impossible. But we’d have to disagree.”

As Americans watch the inevitable death of malls unfold, we can hope the fashion industry will rise from the ashes, an evolved version of its former self, radically inclusive of all bodies. Unfortunately for the 67 percent of women who wear above a size 14, it sure isn’t going to happen overnight. 

So on those blessed occasions when you slip on a new pair of pants, and they fit you like a glove, relish in it. Then make a detailed record of where you found clothes that actually fit you right for when it comes time to replace them. Save yourself from the box-in-the-back-of-the-closet-fashion-dreams-dead scenario. One day, things will be better.