Plus sized bias

by Nicole Stemmler, staff reporter     

Plus sized models often face difficulties when
working in the industry. Photo attribution
to @Dee ♥on Flickr.

Fashion design has the ability to empower a person to get up every morning and grace the day with pride. However, the fashion industry makes millions of people feel ashamed of their bodies.

Over half the population of America is considered plus sized (which is a size 16), yet companies are not catering to the masses.                       

Many designers have tried implementing plus sized models more in magazines and shows, but there is still so many ways in which the fashion industry are slighting the plus sized demographic.

Many plus sized models in photo shoots are actually given pads to make their bodies look perfectly in proportion. This gives women of plus sized shape unattainable goals to become a manufactured body.  

Plus sized clothing is designed in a manner that does flatter the average plus size woman. Just because the size on the tag goes up designers suddenly cannot design presentable clothing.

Pro plus sized campaign, as well as celebrities endorsements such as, Tim Gunn, speak out to designers requesting to change the industry and calling out the retail industry for allowing plus sized clothes to be doughty and hidden in department stores. Many plus sized clothings are not only made cheaply, but is made in darker colors as if the industry wants plus sized woman to blend in.

“It is bad business on their [businesses that do not make plus sized clothing] part, they are just giving business to companies that are willing to sell to plus sized woman,” junior Skylar Kleess said.

Plus sized options are very limited in many department stores. The shoe aisles are larger than the plus sized section. There is no reason for the 67% of Americans who are plus sized to be offered less options than the 33% of Americans who are not.