The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

Attention clothing retailers: Take note.

We pudgy girls (and guys, for that matter) have money too, and we hate being treated like pariahs because we don’t look like the size six designer’s mannequin. While it is true that we often prefer to shop online, in the privacy of our own homes, because fitting room mirrors aren’t flattering to anyone, and especially not us, the fact is, we can’t always. The fit of a garment can’t be judged from a photograph, and sometimes we just need that new outfit faster than UPS can get it to us.

Besides, clearly most of you haven’t figured out that you can’t make attractive plus-sized clothing just by taking your designs for slim people and using more fabric. Pay attention, I know this is a difficult concept to understand: When the human body gains weight, its shape changes. Hips widen at a different rate than busts. Sometimes weight gets distributed to the lower abdomen. The body becomes curvier. Those cute little flat-front capris that look so great on a size 4 model look terrible in a size 16. So we can’t shop online even when we want to, because we never know how the clothes will look on us.

I will take this moment to note, however, that Nordstrom’s does have a pretty good solution for this- all their shipments come with pre-addressed return packaging, so if it doesn’t fit, you can return it very easily. This drags out the shopping process, but is a great way to accommodate those of us who prefer to shop at home.

But here’s the thing, guys. It’s all over the news that Americans are big. And so while you try desperately to preserve your hip image by discontinuing your plus-size lines and relegating the fat chicks to shopping online, you’re catering to a smaller and smaller (no pun intended) group. Sure, the thin girls will continue to buy your clothes, but you’re ignoring a lucrative section of the market.

And we’re becoming very savvy consumers. We don’t wonder why you’re excluding us from shopping at your stores- we know perfectly well that you don’t want us scaring away the pretty people. What we wonder is… how can you be so short-sighted? How can you fail to notice the significant economic power we command?

Sure, I’d like to lose weight, and I’m working toward that now. But the fact is, I can’t realistically expect to ever be a size 6- Even at my ideal weight, I will always be at least on the upper end of the non-plus range. And while I’m losing all that weight, I still need clothes. (You think you hate fat chicks now? Keep refusing to clothe us- we’ll be walking around naked and then you’ll really hate us.) Not only do we need clothes, but we need clothes that aren’t sweatpants and baggy t-shirts. We need clothes that don’t look like we pulled them out of our grandmother’s closets.

What we want are attractive, professional clothes. We want pretty, casual clothes that we can wear out for a night on the town. We want the perfect little black dress. We want a range of options between Lane Bryant and Torrid. We want silk, lace, and cashmere. And let’s not forget that we’re willing to pay good money for clothes that flatter our figures.

We also want you to train your staff better. When a plus-sized person walks into your store and asks for a size that you don’t carry (first of all, shame on you for not carrying it!), the correct answer is not, “We don’t stock sizes THAT big.” Oh yes- I’ve actually heard retail employees say that. The correct answer would be, “Let me check in the back… Oh, I’m sorry, that size seems to be out of stock at the moment. Would you like me to order one for you?”

And if I don’t get what I want? Well, I’m losing the weight. And when I’m down to a size that you carry in your store, I won’t forget how you treated me when I wasn’t.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 8:41 am and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.