Strictly Sized: The fashion industry should focus on inclusivity for all body types, and stop catering to only small body types

Walking into your local local Urban Outfitters, you hesitantly make your way to the clothing section. As you approach the mannequins displayed on the outskirts of the women’s clothes, you notice they’re dressed in size four bodysuits and skin-tight denim shorts.

Flipping through, rack after rack, you have to go through almost each one to reach the clothes that would actually fit, sitting at the very back of the store, behind the ones that could only fit the mannequins. Finally one t-shirt labeled “oversized” looks like it could fit you. You end up walking out of the store with an overpriced, not-so-flattering t-shirt, wishing Urban Outfitters sold cuter clothes for you to wear — that actually fit.

The fashion industry, both luxury and chain brands, caters to people with petite body types, straight-sized people — even when two-thirds of the female population in America are above size 14 and three-fourths of men are considered overweight. If the majority of shoppers are of the plus-size range, why is the fashion industry denying it?

Many brands are fat-phobic in the way that they play along with the stigma by offering limited plus-size clothing. While many brands blame plus-sized people for not eating healthy or exercising, obesity and being overweight is often dependent on genetics, not lifestyle choices. Being a CEO of a fashion company doesn’t qualify you to tell people whether or not they’re healthy.

The lack of plus-sized clothing can also be attributed to the lack of plus- and middle-sized people on a decision-making level within a brand. Although creating any new size or pattern costs money and resources, plus-size clothing would open their clothing to a new demographic of people. 

In many stores that carry plus-sized clothing or specialize in it, the price can be inflated for reasons like the extra fabric and patterns required. However, straight-size clothing shouldn’t be the reference point for determining prices on the same item in other sizes. If you’re basing the price of an item on the size 0 to 4 demographic, you’re practically prioritizing that small portion of the population.

Women’s bathings suits on Forever 21’s website start at $12, but when you filter by plus-size, there’s one bathing suit costing $35. One plus-size swimsuit out of 226. As for men’s clothing, only 172 of the 4299 men’s shirts listed on Target are labeled “men’s big.”

Brands that do carry plus and middle-size clothing often restock less often than they do with their straight-sizes. An investigation by the Huffington Post in 2013 found that middle sizes were rarely restocked in Lululemon stores, but moved to a separate area of the store and clumped under a table.

The simple fact that it’s hard to find plus-size clothing items like crop tops and leggings can clue you into the reality of plus-size shopping. Typically, just walking into an Old Navy yields only loose or baggy items in plus-sizes — no crop tops in sight.

As if plus-size shopping wasn’t already hard enough, there’s also a lack of universal sizing, leaving every brand to have a different idea of how their plus-size clothing should look and how to mark between sizes. So just because one brand works for you doesn’t mean every brand will. Like Brandy Melville and their one-size-fits-all fiasco.

Brandy Melville has been known in recent years for their catchphrase “one size fits all” (later changed to “one size” after public outcry) and the horrible stigma that it endorses. Brands like Brandy Melville instill into the mind of the public that if they don’t fit into their size, then they’re not “all.” It’s extremely exclusive and can lead to eating disorders, heightened self-loathing and dangerously low self esteem.

Brands like these are extremely detrimental to people who don’t fit into the clothes they deem big enough for middle- and plus-size people. Having to be shut down at places like Lululemon that think changing the band size automatically makes the fit around your thigh better is a disheartening feeling. The last thing people should be told is that they can’t wear certain things because they’re too big. 

But hopefully someday, walking into that Urban Outfitters store won’t feel so degrading.