Plus-Size Youths Finding Larger Clothes Selection
Gina Russo bristles when she describes the loathsome task of finding clothes that suit her in a size 16.
If the waistline fits, the skirt hangs. If the shirt’s roomy, it’s cut too short. And don’t get her started on “electric orange muumuus” and elastic waistbands.
“It’s like, ‘Thank you, I wanted that because I’m 24 years old and I want to look 60,’ ” the West Los Angeles resident says sarcastically.
But shopping might become less onerous for the associate producer and millions of other young, large, fashion-conscious women like her.
Retailers and manufacturers, tapping into what analysts say is a potentially lucrative and largely ignored market, are stocking larger sizes for teens and young women.
In the boldest example, counterculture retailer Hot Topic Inc. this month is launching a chain of mall stores that will sell edgy apparel--including vinyl skirts, sheer tops, camouflage pants, fishnet hose and punk jewelry--in sizes 14 through 26. The first Torrid store is scheduled to open Thursday at the Brea Mall, and five more will be operating nationwide by June.
“There’s a huge need for it,” said Elizabeth Pierce, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. “Everybody knows the demographics are there.”
In fact, a growing number of more mainstream companies has been adding larger sizes for younger women. Gap Inc. has nudged its selections up to a size 16 in its 1,988 stores nationwide over the last year. Target Stores’ new Mossimo line for juniors includes plus sizes for such items as board shorts, tank tops and knit capri judo pants. This fall, Tommy Hilfiger Corp. will launch a plus-size line.
Retailers and analysts cite two key factors driving the trend: The population is getting larger, and bigger women are increasingly unwilling to shroud themselves in fabric.
“The shorts are getting shorter,” said an employee at Lane Bryant, a plus-size chain that’s been trying to woo younger women. “It’s no more about covering yourself up. It’s about being in style.”
Clearly there’s a growing market for trendy, youthful fashions in larger sizes.
Over the last two decades the number of overweight children and teens nearly doubled, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which announced last month that the latest study, in 1999, found that 14% of all children ages 12 to 19 were overweight. Sales of women’s sizes 16 and up have risen steadily since 1997, jumping 22.2% last year alone.
In another sign of the trend, modeling agencies are fielding more requests for full-figure models.
“Retailers are recognizing, on a large scale, that even in a bad economy like there is now, there’s a buyer for over size 12,” said Thomas Winslow, an agent at Wilhelmina Models Inc. in New York, where assignments for larger models are the fastest-growing segment of the business.
Health-care professionals welcome the shift, saying larger children and young adults have enough trouble without being able to find clothes similar to what their friends wear. Overweight children are often teased by peers, teachers and coaches and pushed by parents to be thinner, said Stewart Agras, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University.
“Particularly, it’s the peer teasing that does a great deal of damage and begins to lower their self-esteem,” he said. “That sets them up for an eating disorder.”
Shopping can be especially painful for larger teens, who so desperately want to fit in.
“You see Britney Spears on TV with these trendy, great things on and you want them, but you can’t get them,” said Kristine Scichilone, event coordinator for Mode magazine, which caters to larger women.
Scichilone, 26, who generally wears a size 22, has had her own share of miserable shopping excursions. For example, the New York resident couldn’t find anything jazzy to buy for her 24th birthday party and had to resort to wearing a basic black skirt and top that was hanging in her closet. Her size-8 girlfriend, who was also celebrating a birthday at the party, had no such problem.
“She showed up in a zebra print skirt, just to ruin my night,” Scichilone said.
Shopping also is trying for Russo, the associate producer, who earlier this year had trouble finding something to wear to the opera. She knew exactly what she wanted: “a ruby-red, strapless, floor-length Catherine Zeta-Jones-at-the-Oscars type of dress.” She settled for a red dress with black sequins that didn’t quite fit her and cost $300.
“They think for some reason, if you’re a large size you don’t want to be flashy,” Russo said.
Although clothing makers and retailers have been slow to recognize the potential market for larger trendy clothes for younger shoppers, they have not been completely oblivious.
Target introduced larger juniors sizes in 1997. A year later, sportswear maker FUBU, known for its urban street wear, began offering larger sizes after being coaxed by customers.
“They would say, ‘When are you going to make stuff for the big girls? Don’t forget about us,’ ” marketing president Leslie Short said.
Sears Roebuck & Co., the nation’s largest department store chain, also went after larger-size teens in 1998, putting plus sizes for juniors in 60 stores. Now, 500 Sears nationwide carry plus sizes for teens.
Some retailers charge about 10% more for plus sizes, largely because of the additional material needed to make the clothes.
The plus-size pioneer is Lane Bryant, a 101-year-old company with 740 stores nationwide. The chain began adding more selections for younger customers 15 years ago, after it was purchased by the Limited Inc., which caters to a younger shopper.
About five years ago, Lane Bryant discovered that its fastest-growing group of shoppers was ages 17 to 26, spokeswoman Catherine Lippincott said, prompting the company to try harder to keep up with fashion trends. The South Coast Plaza store, for example, sells printed capris, white denim pants with frayed hems and waistlines, and red halter top shifts.
But young shoppers still tend to see Lane Bryant--which the Limited is now trying to sell--as a store for older women, analysts say.
Indeed, clothing makers say retailers still have plenty of room for improvement when it comes to offering bigger sizes for teens. Large girls still are generally forced to shop in women’s plus-size departments--not hotbeds of fashion--whereas their girlfriends pick from an array of trendy clothes in the juniors section.
“The problem is [stores] don’t have a space for it or don’t know how to deal with it,” said FUBU’s Short. “Even to this day, it’s hard sometimes to get our line into department stores.”
“Our dream,” she added, “is to get a size 2 and a size 22 all on the same rack.”
Some analysts think Hot Topic might help break down barriers, moving edgy clothes for larger young women into the mainstream.
The city of Industry company, which has 291 stores nationwide, began testing the market a couple of years ago by putting a limited selection of larger sizes in its Hot Topic stores. Soon the No. 1 request was for more plus sizes, Chief Executive Elizabeth McLaughlin said.
“Every item that was a bestseller in the regular sizes at Hot Topic was also a bestseller in the plus sizes,” McLaughlin said.
The company maintains that more than 30% of young women in the United States wear size 14 or larger.
In addition to the Brea Mall, Torrid stores will open in San Diego, Denver, Omaha, Boston and Annapolis, Md.
Still, some experts have questioned whether young females will be comfortable shopping in a store geared toward larger people.
“When they first announced it, I almost fell off my chair,” said Joseph Teklits, an analyst with Ferris, Baker Watts Inc. “I thought, ‘Why would a person want to shop in a store that screamed that you’re overweight?’ ”
But after learning more about the concept and the demographics, Teklits has decided these young customers will “bite the bullet for 30 minutes” of shopping to “feel good about [themselves] for the other 23.5 hours.”
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Large Size, Sales
Clothing for larger women
is accounting for a bigger slice of the apparel market, with sales jumping more than 22% last year.
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Volume (In millions of dollars)
1997: $12.7 million
2000: $17.2 million
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Dollar share of market
1997: 7.5%
1998: 7.6%
1999: 7.8%
2000: 9.4%
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Source: NPD Group
