Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, XX-Large, XXX-Large: Depending on what material you’re looking for, online stores provide shoppers with a “size guide.” But sometimes, these size guides are only meant for one body type. For example, a plus size model who is XX-large but has an hourglass shape looks different from another plus size woman who may not have that exact shape. Using models that don’t outline the reality of a woman’s body is flawed and can be misleading.

One might think that with increasing pushes for equality in fashion, things would have changed, especially in the modeling industry and clothing stores who discriminate against plus size women. But many of these changes are only surface-level. For example, Forever 21, an internationally known clothing store, recently came out with their own section for plus size women. The clothing they came out with is noticeably different compared to someone who has a smaller frame. Instead of making the same clothing they make for smaller women and adding bigger sizes, designers chose to modify the clothing to make it more “appropriate” for plus size women, when in reality they make the styles plain and unattractive.

Fashion Nova, another online fashion store, has a pretty solid foundation when it comes to their “Fashion Nova Curve” clothing. Although if shoppers take notice of the plus size models Fashion Nova chooses to model their clothes, they might notice subtle discrimination. More than half of Fashion Nova’s plus size models have an hourglass shape. Also, many of Fashion Nova models have had a BBL and work done on their body just to model the clothes better. 

Torrid, another popular fashion store for plus size women specifically, makes clothes to support plus size women and make them feel more confident in their bodies. However, their prices are much more expensive than those of similar brands on the market. It’s hard to flaunt that confidence when the new pair of jeans you bought from Torrid is sitting at $75.

When it comes to plus size women’s clothing, designers point out how it’s more expensive to make clothing for plus size women because of the extra fabric it takes to make the clothing. Torrid was made to support plus size women as a whole, therefore, shoppers would think paying the expenses of the use of extra fabric wouldn’t be put on them.  Supporting plus women or women in general is not raising prices on their clothing because that’s like making women pay for being plus size, which is dehumanizing and degrading. 

Many clothing brands should stop enforcing the way they think a woman should look or what size that women should be. Plus size women just want bigger sizes, not modifications for what the store deems appropriate. Too often, full-figured women, including myself, walk into stores and feel unrepresented and unwanted. Clothing brands hear this type of feedback from plus size women constantly. Yet the changes they make are careless, sloppy, and mediocre overall.