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Plus. Curve. Extended. All words that have been used to label clothing that goes above a size 12, all words that have—in their own way—offended the 68% of women in the U.S. who shop for clothing in these sizes.
The debate is one we've heard on repeat. Top models like Ashley Graham and Tyra Banks have been vocal about their distaste for the term plus-size as a way to categorize clothing and people. Graham has said she finds it isolating, while Banks feels it has a negative connotation. It doesn’t help that, historically, the term has been loosely co-opted as a catch-all for anyone who doesn’t fit into a size-2 sample. Then there's the matter of grouping a majority of shoppers and giving them the minority of the merchandise. Combined with society’s general hatred of fat bodies, it has made many begin to loathe the term plus-size.
But here's where it gets tricky. For some people, the term can be a helpful designation when most stores don’t carry clothes that fit you. It’s assumed that, if a section is labeled as “plus-size,” you’ll find pieces in sizes 14 (and in some case, size 12) and up. It allows you to know that, when you walk into that store, there’s something for you—which, unfortunately, is a rare find in 2019.
“There really is no harm in that word, truly. Somewhere along the way, society has turned plus-size into a bad four-letter word for whatever reasons, and there’s just so many wild misconceptions and connotations around it,” says model Candice Huffine. “The word plus isn’t the offender here. It’s the way we’re approaching what it means from a fashion standpoint or an industry standpoint.”
On an individual level, some alternatives have come up—like how people like model and activist Tess Holliday have reclaimed the word fat. In the mainstream fashion industry, though, “plus-size” is still the most common label used to refer to brands, designers, and models.
Huffine signed to an agency 18 years ago and even then, she says, she didn’t view being classified as a “plus-size” model as constraining or negative in any way. Neither did Lauren Chan, a model who later went on to serve as a fashion editor at *Glamour* and will soon be launching her own label, Henning.
“It was a word I felt proud to be using. I felt like it differentiated me from other models in a way that I wanted to scream from the rooftops,” Chan says. “I was on the plus-size board at Ford Models with women like Ashley Graham and Candice Huffine, and I was damn proud to have a label that grouped me with them.”
Still, Huffine and Chan say they understand why some find issue with it: It does, in a sense, create an “othering” feeling. Mina White—a director for IMG Models who has worked with big names like Huffine and Precious Lee—is one of many women who aren’t on board with it.
“I find it to be a little suggestive and a little bit mean-spirited,” White says. “In my opinion, fashion is fashion and should be available in all sizes, so there shouldn’t be plus-size, straight-size, and in-between size. It should just be fashion.” She personally prefers the term curvy.
Model Marquita Pring says she used to reject plus-size too. But she admits that her perspective has shifted, largely because of the community that has formed around it. Still, “I do think we should start stepping into a place of getting rid of these labels,” she says.
Is a label even necessary? Can we retire the term plus-size—or any clothing size identifiers, for that matter—once and for all? Or is the conversation surrounding this eight-letter term missing the point entirely?
Some brands have shied away from labeling their products as "plus size," instead calling their collections that go above a size 14 “curvy,” “extended,” and even simply “14+.” But again, there's no standard across the industry, so it can make for a confusing experience for the shopper. And it presents another issue with having an umbrella term to begin with: It covers too many varying sizes, which means some brands say “plus” goes up to an 18, while others will up to a 40. Again, confusing.
Nicolette Mason, a fashion writer and consultant who cofounded Premme with Gabi Gregg, says it’s important that, no matter what term you use, it should come with “some kind of distinction” for exactly what sizes it encompasses: “If someone is going to refer to a size range as being plus-size, there’s an expectation that they’re going to carry from at least a 12 or 14 up through at least a 24, if not higher.”
That's why it helps to be more explicit—for example, 11 Honoré, the online luxury retailer, advertises that it sells clothing in sizes 12 to 24. “Whether you’re straight size or plus size, you’re busy and you don’t want to spend time shopping on a site that doesn't have your potential sizing,” says Patrick Herning, its founder and CEO. “So for us, it’s pretty explicit, and it shows if you fit into this specific size run, we’re here for you.”
Kaelen Haworth of Second Sight, a size-inclusive womenswear brand that has started publicly using the term extended sizing, thinks her approach may be a good alternative. “I don't see the need to designate a certain group of people as plus-size,” she says. “I think extended sizing is a better way to talk about it because it's just descriptive. It gives women a heads-up that there are more sizing options for a variety of bodies.”
Part of the reason there's a debate about this in the first place is that it's such a personal thing: It's your body, and everyone's in a different place on their journey to acceptance or feeling comfortable with where they fit. The fact that it affects literally where you get clothes and how you find them makes it more complicated.
There might not be a "right" way to label it, but everyone seems to agree on one aspect of this conversation: There's still a stigma there, and we need to break it.
“[We need to] change the culture around how we treat plus sizes,” says Mason. “That has less to do with the terminology and more to do with our attitudes around bigger bodies and the way larger bodies are stigmatized.”
Everyone interviewed for this piece agrees. Chan explains it best: “We only have so much space to talk about this. If we’re going to get mad, let’s get mad about where the product is, or why [larger sizes are] more expensive, or why designers are still saying they don’t want to serve this demographic.”
“This is why we believe that we have to stop thinking in terms of plus-size,” says Alexandra Waldman, cofounder and creative director of Universal Standard, a size-inclusive brand that caters to sizes 00 to 40 equally. “We don't need another plus-size brand. What we need is to remove that barrier and just make clothes for women. As long as we're the other, we're going to be the lesser."
In 2019 women of all sizes deserve to be thought of in design rooms. Plus-size, curvy, extended sizing, fat—whichever term you choose doesn’t change the mission: to keep fighting for representation and claiming space, figuratively and literally, in this industry we deserve to belong in.
Gianluca Russo is a writer and editor in New York. Follow him on Instagram @g_russo1.
