I always love a solid article on the plus industry. Plus Size Wars is an article featured in the New York Times today written by Ginia Bellafante. She perfectly sums up the “Catch 22″ of plus fashion.

“The market for plus-size clothes is effectively a Catch-22: women purchase less than they might because what they see on the racks doesn’t appeal to them; manufacturers and retailers cite poor sales figures as evidence of low demand and retrench, failing to provide the supply that might meet changing tastes. But correcting the imbalance isn’t a simple matter of translating a Milan runway look into a larger size. It is not because Miuccia Prada cannot abide women who are a size 18 that she makes no dresses in size 18. Matters of image and fears of brand diminishment may play a role, but the business of making plus-size clothes turns out to be enormously complicated.”

Developing clothes for the plus women is much more complex then for a straight size women. Many more factors go into each garment because there are so many variations of the plus body.  To add to this “Catch 22″ factor, schools do not educate there fashion students in plus size design, marketing, or merchandising.  Therefore, there are very few people who know how to develop plus clothing correctly and then successfully market to the consumer.

We are fortunate that the Madison Plus team is plus size industry experts with our expertise focused on plus size clothing development, buying, styling, design, merchandising, and plus model selection. If you would like to contact us to find out more about our services please email us at info@madisonplus.com.

(L-R Kari, Aimee, Erica)

Please take a moment and read this NYT article.