Designers Embrace Plus-Size Market - East Idaho News

Designers Embrace Plus-Size Market

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Getty 022813 ObeseWoman?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1372267888341Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — For so long, the fuller-figured woman has felt alienated by the fashion world. But high-end designers are finally catering to them. And plus-sized women everywhere are rewarding them by buying more, spending more and spreading the world.

The average runway model is a size 0, but in the real world the average American woman is a size 14. And most designer styles top out at size 12.

Some brands like Abercrombie & Fitch don’t even sell extra-large sizes for women, leaving plus-size women with few options. But now that trend is changing thanks to fuller-figured fashionistas who are demanding flattering, trendy clothes.

“I think there has been a common misconception both socially and in the fashion industry that that block of women are those sizes don’t really care about fashion, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Lori Bergamotto, contributing style editor of Lucky magazine, told ABC News.

Designers like Michael Kors, Calvin Klein and Vince Camuto are creating styling pieces for plus-size women, and designers of companies big and small are finding it’s a very lucrative business.

On May 15, plus-size blogger Gabi Gregg collaborated with “Swimsuits for All” to create a “Fatkini” which sold out within an hour of going on sale.

“In the end of the day, the fashion industry is a business and they were seeing where a lot of those profits were going,” Bergamotto said. “Twenty percent of our revenue is from women who are over a size 12 and it is finally like, ‘Ding. Let’s get going.’”

ABC News’ Paula Faris took a trip to Bloomingdales with plus-size fashion blogger, Alissa Wilson, to check out the growing selection of fashion for fuller, fabulous figures.

“If you are going to make us something stylish, nice and it fits us, we’re going to buy it,” Wilson explained. “Finally no more moo moos. No more basic black. We want the same thing that we see on the runway.”

And she found them, giving us her own fashion show, proving that when it comes to beauty, size doesn’t matter.

Just last week at the Full Figured Fashion Week in New York, there were 100 brands represented, which is a stark contrast to the 12 brands it started with in 2009.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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