In The Lack of Luxury: Shopping as a Plus Size Person
In the past year, I celebrated one of the greatest milestones of my entire life, something I’d been looking forward to for four years: my college graduation. And although the pandemic changed the conditions, although I wouldn’t get to walk across a stage hearing the cheers from my friends and family, I wanted to treat the event with the care and celebration it deserved. I wanted to buy a new dress that I would wear forever, one that would always remind me of this specific milestone. I wanted to go shopping.
We have special occasions to shop for all the time: parties, birthdays, the upcoming holidays, even simply existing in the world is worth celebrating. Shopping can be a special event in itself. Piling up pieces to try on. Doing a spin in a dressing room and basking in how stellar you look from every angle. Leaving with a new treasure wrapped carefully in tissue paper. Spending the time and money on treating yourself can be an act of self-love.
But shopping in stores, I’ve learned, is a privilege plus size shoppers don’t have. I window shop in agony. Strolling city streets and stopping anywhere I please and trying on anything I want is an experience I haven’t had in a long time. As I searched endlessly online for that luxury dress that would make my graduation a proper occasion, I became progressively discouraged. I couldn’t shop in-stores, and even online my options were slim.
Eventually, I found a staple piece that I wear often and will wear forever, the Anthropologie Elyse Bias Slip Midi Dress, sizing up to a 3X. I style it for every occasion, from grabbing coffee to going out on the town. I throw on my favorite Jil Dever Greenwich Wrap to add a luxury layer and am out the door.
This size range is common amongst many of the brands that do carry extended sizes. 3X is not inclusive enough. Many of these brands also carry a much different selection--one that is more modest, less bright, and with fewer details that makes a piece special. There’s more ruching, ruffles, elastic, more easy fixes to make a size inclusive line instead of catering to our specific bodies. And even when these brands do carry this limited selection, they don’t stock it in stores.
When in the market for a luxury garment, plus size shoppers have to prowl the Internet for hours, study size charts down to every detail, buy multiple sizes with the intention of returning those that don’t fit, and order online. Instead of being a treat, shopping as a plus-size person is more of a chore. Being consistently unable to find anything that fits leads to a sense of shame, like we are not entitled to dressing up and claiming ownership over our bodies through fashion.
Recently, I went down the rabbit hole of shopping for another new dress. I shop according to my slow fashion ethics, which narrows my selection even further. I found the perfect dress, a red midi-length number, strappy with an open back. But when I called to see if they had my size in store, I was rudely reminded that the extended size range is online-only because there apparently isn’t a great enough market for plus-sizes. We did carry it in stores but no one came in to try it on, they said to me. Well I’m a plus-size shopper trying to come in and try it on and now I’m unable to, I replied.
Elle in Soho, NYC. Accessories: Jil Dever Broadway Lame Wrap, Loewe Bag, Tiffany & Co. signet ring, wearing Anthropologie Plus Size Dress: Elyse Bias Slip Midi Dress.
The assertion shocked me, as the average size of American women is a size 16. The extended size shopping market is worth $32 billion and grows every day. If the average American woman is plus-sized, how come only 20% of the fashion industry caters to us? And even if we don’t shop luxury at the same capacity, how come we can’t shop it at all? There are seeds of hope--plus-size online boutique 11 Honore sells luxury fashion from curated brands like Baacal and Mara Hoffman, but plus-size shoppers deserve options in abundance just as much as straight-size shoppers.
Being able to shop inclusive fashion will not, at the end of the day, achieve liberation and justice for all bodies. But in the meantime, being able to shop inclusive sizes means we all have access to owning our bodies and our identities at every size, for every occasion from a college graduation to grocery shopping.
Elle is a business person and freelance writer with experience in blogs, creative nonfiction, short fiction, memoir, journalism, food & cultural reviews, nonprofit writing, and designing content for social media.
Elle integrates her anthropological studies into her writing to achieve a unique perspective that is both introspective and deeply critical of her surroundings. Her topics of expertise include fat liberation, pop culture, the outdoors, and gender.
https://www.ellebiesemeyer.com
https://www.ellebiesemeyer.com/blogs