Fashion first, whatever the size

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/fashion/story/161BD29A07A\
A57AF862575E0007758A0?OpenDocument

BY RUTH LA FERLA
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Beth Ditto was livid. Topshop, the fast-fashion chain, had approached Ditto, the
outsize lead singer with the punk band Gossip, and a favorite mascot of the
fashion world, to perform at its flagship store in London. Blowups of her
heart-shaped face and rotund form would be on display.

But Ditto, who happily flaunts what the British like to call her "wobbly bits,"
was having none of it. "I don't think it's fair to put my face somewhere where
they would never let me in there to wear their clothes," she complained on a
blog. If the chain hoped to capitalize on her grooviness, she wrote, why not
accord her the same status it does Kate Moss, and let her create a "big girl"
line for Topshop.

"Give me the job," Ditto demanded. "I want to design."

Her message, flung down like a gauntlet, reached the ears of the Arcadia Group,
the parent company of Topshop. In the next several weeks, a couple of years
after Ditto's sound off, Arcadia plans to unveil a collection that Ditto
designed for Evans, the company's plus-size division. Available in the United
States at topshop.com, it highlights cutting-edge looks such as a corset dress
and a cropped biker jacket.

GETTING THE MESSAGE

The collection is the latest in an outpouring of fashions aimed at trend-driven,
round-figured teenagers and young women, a population that has long echoed
Ditto's complaint that it is ignored by most merchants and brands.

"Up to now it's been difficult to provide adequate fashion content to a
large-sized customer," said Jeff Van Sinderen, a retail analyst at B.Riley, a
research and investment firm. The woman of size, as she is euphemistically
known, "still wants to wear the same clothes as her slimmer counterparts," he
added.

Other stores and designers have picked up the message. Forever 21, a purveyor of
cheap chic, introduced its plus-size line, Faith 21, this spring. Target
recently began offering Pure Energy, exuberantly patterned dresses and tops for
young women. Those follow hip niche labels such as Karen Kane and Kiyonna, which
are sold at boutiques.

All the lines see potential profit in offering stylish alternatives to the
ubiquitous track suit. From a business perspective, that makes sense: the
customer base is increasing, as health authorities have long pointed out. Some
17 percent of teenagers are overweight, according to the surgeon general's
office, more than three times the rate of a generation ago.

The market for youth-oriented plus sizes (usually 14 to 24) showed strong growth
a couple of years ago, several years after the fast-fashion chain H&M entered
the business. (H&M has since dropped its plus-size line, for reasons it would
not disclose.)

Last year, sales of plus sizes to girls and young women ages 13 to 34 reached
$5.8 billion, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm.

With consumer spending falling everywhere, that momentum has been lost: Sales
declined 15.3 percent for plus-size shoppers 13 to 17 and 10.1 percent for those
18 to 34 in April and May, compared with the period a year ago, NPD says.

Plus-size lines aimed at older women have also suffered; chains including Ann
Taylor and Old Navy have removed larger sizes from stores. (They still sell them
online.)

Despite the slump, some see the market inevitably returning to strength. "The
fact that more businesses are getting into this market is a clear indication
that the recent lack of growth has been more about the economy than about a lack
of interest," said Marshal Cohen, an NPD analyst.

Faith 21 was introduced "because our customers were asking for larger sizes, and
to fill a void in the market for trendy and fashionable plus-size clothing,"
said Linda Chang, the senior manager of marketing for Forever 21. It includes
some 250 styles.

BOLDER STYLES

Smaller stores are also catering to shoppers who want figure-hugging fashions
like their thinner friends. "Some of those girls feel like they have the brio to
pull off a fitted look," said Stephanie Sack, the owner of Vive la Femme, a
plus-size boutique on fashionable Damen Avenue in Chicago. She confided that
when she was 20, "I would have choked somebody to get my hand on a studded belt
to fit me."

She might find updated versions of that belt today at Torrid, a division of the
youth-oriented Hot Topic chain, which began offering moderately priced,
rock-influenced looks to young women nearly a decade ago. Or at Fat Fancy, a new
boutique in Portland, Ore., that sells vintage and current styles in sizes up to
24.

"When you're fat, you stand out anyway," said Annie Maribona, the shop's founder
and part owner. "It's really important to go all the way and do something fun or
even outrageous with your clothes."

Stores as diverse as Kmart and Lord & Taylor have dispensed with conventional
big girls' "dos and don'ts," offering the hothouse colors and exuberant prints,
the ruffles and flounces of their so-called straight-size counterparts. Even
horizontal stripes, once a fashion sin for the overweight, animate some looks in
Kmart's Piper & Blue collection.

"I've noticed lately that they are trying to make big sizes more into style,"
said Kathy Salinas, as she considered a zebra-striped Piper & Blue tunic at a
Kmart in downtown Manhattan this week. "You see that at regular stores, not just
the plus-size stores, and that's a good thing."

CELEB STYLE

Round-figured young women have found inspiration in popular culture. Ditto, who
settled her girth on tiny gilt chairs at some 10 fashion shows this year, along
with the actress Jennifer Hudson and the singer Adele, all appear in
full-figured glory in the current issue of Elle.

The glamorously curvy Jordin Sparks captivated viewers on "American Idol," then
moved on to a recording career. On Stylista, a reality show on the CW network
last fall, a curvy contestant named Danielle competed for a job as a junior
editor at Elle.

More than tokenism, such fashion and media tactics seem born of a conviction
that larger young women have become more self-accepting. "They are inclined to
show off the parts of their bodies they love," said Sack, the Chicago retailer.
Pushing the trend is a broad movement of fat acceptance among academics,
anti-bias activists and some psychologists. "It's important to reclaim 'fat' as
a descriptive, as even something positive," argued Maribona of Fat Fancy.

But others point to serious health consequences of being overweight. Andrea
Marks, a specialist in adolescent medicine in Manhattan, suspects that "the vast
majority of overweight girls are not so happy." Apparent self-acceptance, she
added, may be a cover for defiance or resignation.

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