Plus-size ladies have to shop online, more often than not. For lack of better prices, or variety, in stores.
Many retailers have decided to get on board and offer plus-size items collections. Great news.
What is not so great, is that we get shown the same regular sized model with the regular sized clothing on.
I can understand that maybe some of them don’t have the budget for a photo shoot with living models; to that, I respond that plus-size forms or mannequins exist for a reason!
Some other companies have been major players in the plus-size clothing field for a while now and still, no plus-size bodies to be seen in their clothing. And they can hardly justify this situation.
For every retailer mentioned below, I filtered result using obvious “plus-size” criteria – which you can see in the red rectangle on each picture (you can click on each image to open it in a new window to see better).
What do you think of an e-mail campaign, asking them for a proper representation of their plus-size clothes on living and breathing plus-size models, or at least on plus-size mannequins and/or shapes?
If you are using Outlook or a similar e-mail client, you can click on the “Use this template” under each company’s e-mail address; a new email, with the message below, will pop-up. If you use Hotmail, Gmail or a similar web-hosted provided, you can use the e-mail address indicated along with the following message:
To whom it may concern,
As a plus-size consumer, I’m truly saddened by the lack of representation of your plus-size clothes on aptly sized models. As you may know, it is already hard for us to try to figure out how we would look and fit in clothes when shown on plus-size models (or mannequins), due to the variety of plus-size silhouettes.
I sincerely hope you give proper consideration to this matter; I would be saddened to see your efforts to open up to body diversity and curvier clients ruined by a problem that could be fixed so easily.
Thank you, on behalf of all current, future & potential plus-size clients.
Respectfully,
Signature
NOTE : When available, I have also included the link to the “Contact Us” page for each company, which I encourage you to use with the above message.
COOLIBAR
This company has interesting products for travelers as they sell clothing with UV protection, a blessing when you don’t want to bother putting on sunscreen all the time. Sadly, it seems that they haven’t yet decided to show their plus-size clothes on actual plus-size bodies… even though they’ve been selling plus-size since at least May 2016!
To contact them
Their email address: service@coolibar.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
Their “Contact Us” form
CHAMPION
Some of the plus-size items of Champion’s collection are displayed on plus models in their (limited) collection. But they still won’t dare show a plus-size bra on an actual plus-size woman…
To contact them
Their email address: contact_us@hanes.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
Their “Contact Us“ form
L.L. BEAN
That company sold plus-size items way before it was caught in an electoral PR storm when a board member was accused of making excessive contributions to the Trump campaign.
To contact them
Their email address: publicaffairs@llbean.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
EDDIE BAUER
The company has been an important player in the outdoor clothes industry and has been around since the 1920’s, with now more than 350 stores across US and Canada. Still, not a plus-size body to be found…
To contact them
Their email address: CustomerService@service.eddiebauer.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
Their “Contact Us” form
TRAVELSMITH
They have a brand new, redesigned website… but it seems like they didn’t think it was worth doing a plus-size photo shoot for their Women’s Plus collection…
To contact them
Their email address: service@cs.travelsmith.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
Or use their “Contact Us” form
WILLOW RIDGE
To contact them
Their email address: international@blair.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
REI CO-OP
I would have expected more from a co-op, these types of organizations usually know to have the satisfaction of their members at heart…?
To contact them
REI’s Board email address: board@rei.com
(or Use this template for Outlook and similar email clients)
Their “Contact Us” form
So… at your keyboards, everyone!
At the moment of publishing this post, I have sent the pre-formatted message (on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017) to every retailer listed and will keep you posted on the answers I receive (or lack thereof)! Stay tuned by subscribing to the comments or following the Facebook page to get the latest updates…!
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