Dressed Out: The Complicated Relationship Between Fast Fashion and Plus Size Customers
Drawings by Sharon Dennard
Recently, I came across a TikTok where a creator had asked her followers to drop their favorite plus size brands in the comments. I popped over to the comments to drop my favorites but paused when I saw the other commenters leaving the same handful of names: Shein, Amazon, Cider, Boohoo, and Pretty Little Things.
I was surprised. But I shouldn’t have been.
If you had asked me about ASOS Curve ten years ago, I would have expressed a loyalty to them, which I usually reserve for my mother, Dolly Parton, and the Houston Astros.
For the first time in my life, I didn’t just have some clothes to choose from in my size—I had pages and pages of items to consider. Not only that, but I could order lots, try them on at home, and return what I didn’t want—all with free two-day shipping—because, of course, I was an ASOS premier member.
"...finally, when my girlfriends and I would go to the Towson Mall every Friday afternoon after class, I, too, could find something cheap and fun to wear to a party that night."
This wasn’t my first adventure in fast fashion. After all, I’m a millennial. I spent countless afternoons in high school in the oversized, overstuffed, shiny white halls of Forever 21. Waiting on the velvet benches outside the dressing room while my much thinner cousin modeled various cargo mini skirts she was considering for the SigEp party that night.
In 2009, Forever 21 launched its first plus size collection. I was a junior in college at the time, and finally, when my girlfriends and I would go to the Towson Mall every Friday afternoon after class, I, too, could find something cheap and fun to wear to a party that night. Although the selection was limited, I had options, and I never left empty-handed.
ASOS Curve launched in 2010, and the corner of options I had at Forever 21 now paled compared to the pages and pages of things in my size on ASOS.
My commitment to ASOS can be seen in this highly embarrassing IG post from 2016.
But then, the conversation around fast fashion began to shift. Maybe having a new top every Friday wasn’t a great idea. Maybe wearing a dress once then retiring it back to your closet to never be seen again, wasn’t the best. Maybe supporting a business creating hundreds of SKUs every few days was doing more harm in the world than good.
"I started buying better things less often."
The conversation around fast fashion became a moral one, and soon, sustainable fashion became au courant within the industry.
That applied to the plus-size fashion industry, too. I traded in my ASOS and Forever 21 for Wray NYC, Universal Standard, Mara Hoffman, and Ganni. Although they were more expensive, the quality and fit were far superior to what I had been buying. I started buying better things less often.
Me in a few of my favorite smaller brands. From left to right: Ester Manas, Chopova Lowena, Big Bud Press and Ganni. 💜
So, imagine my shock when I looked at the comments section and saw that most, if not all, of those commenters were shopping at this generation’s versions of Forever 21 and ASOS.
But then I thought about it. Recently, we’ve seen a surge in mid to higher-end brands removing their plus sizes from stores or getting rid of them altogether. Staud, Miaou, Ann Taylor, and even large department stores like Nordstrom, which always had a corner of the store for “Women,” have downsized or straight-up demolished their extended sizing line. So, it’s understandable that customers are weary of these brands who make big shows of extending their line only to quietly remove it once the narrative has shifted. (Ahem, Miaou.)
The truth is that fast fashion beat high-end and mid-level fashion to the punch when it addressed the needs of plus-size consumers.
And sadly, I think we’re worse off because of it.
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