We’ve all heard time and time again “one size fits all,” and we all know very well that this is a fallacy. Especially during Covid with online shopping, it has become increasingly challenging for plus size women or any women above a size two to find a comfortable fit accurately. My friend came into my room the other day to try on a simple bikini that she bought offline and was less than excited about how it fit the second she put it on. How is it that even when you order the right size, things are still super small and aren’t made for all body types? Especially with fast fashion, there isn’t a big focus on inclusivity, and for college students with a lower budget, it can be really hard to keep up with the trends when everyone is buying from one website that is exclusive to one body type. This has lead me to want to dive deeper and call to light the problems still prevalent in the fashion industry today.
The sad truth is that the top 10 highest CEOs in fashion are all men. Gender Inequality is still a massive problem in the fashion industry, but I will only be tackling the issue of inclusivity in this blog. Size inclusivity should be about celebrating all body types, not just the select few that have become the ideal and force-fed to everyone on social media. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes; everybody type deserves representation. Size inclusivity is not only the right thing to do for equality, but it makes the most sense economically as you increase the number of consumers when you create clothes for all sizes. Yet still, most designers top out at sizes 12 or 14, while the average woman is a size 16-18.
Not to say that the fashion industry hasn’t come a long way; there have been massive improvements, more and more designers have become more inclusive such as Stuart Weitzman. The problem is the idea that thinness is synonymous with style – a lot of straight-size designers are afraid of change. The size two standard is extremely prevalent with whats in style today, and because today’s trends are only made for one body type, so many girls are left out. This is so disheartening as fashion is a huge part of a persons identity, its how someone expresses who they are. Fashion is made to make you feel like your best self,its so personal. As a woman, fashion has given me confidence, it gives me the ability to make a statement, and everyone, regardless of their size, should have the opportunity to feel that way.
The fashion industry has evolved so much, but the question is will it keep on trying to improve, or will it simply do the bare minimum. Will the fashion industry ever branch out from the notion of the “feminine ideal” and the size two standard and give representation to every size?
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
I’m glad you brought attention to this fallacy. While there has been an improvement, there’s still a long way to go. It is unsettling that men are in control of many women’s industries, from healthcare to the fashion industry…clearly they don’t know what they’re doing. Specifically, with Brandy Melville…it does sound like a woman-owned business, but it was actually founded by a man and his son Silvio and Stephan Marson. The majority of their clothes are one size fits all, and Jeebus this is so untrue. I am 130 lb, 5’5″, I typically range from wearing a size small or medium in clothing, and their clothes are usually a little too small on me. However, they are a perfect fit for my 90 lb, 5′, 12-year-old sister. They should change their “one size fits all” to “fits all skinny, short, prepubescents.”
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I was totally thinking of Brandy Melville the entire time I was writing this, its so so frustrating to see brands getting away with exclusivity to a petite size only. I really wanted to focus on the gatekeeping of trendy clothes to the size two standard and I’m so thankful for your positive feedback !!!
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This really makes you think about how women have come to embody these false perception of beauty and how much it effects all of our lives. We all know what its like to try on something like a bikini and hate the way it looks, you always wonder if theres something you could be doing to make your body look a little bit thinner or a little bustier, etc. What does that do for our mental health? Our self esteem? These are key elements to living a happy, healthy, or otherwise fulfilling life, aren’t they? And to know that so much of our perception of beauty is cultivated, twisted, and molded by MEN. Another reason why its so important to invest into companies that SEE these issues and are EMPOWERING for WOMEN. Thanks for bringing this to the table- really important topic!!
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*snap* I recently had to order some clothes for an event and noticed that even with some of the clothes made for curvier women they still pick people with unrealistic body types. With fat in “all the right places” and most models on fashion nova have the drastic hourglass figure which has to be photoshopped at least a little. When I was younger this affected me so much and caused me to hate shopping because of this perfect body image I had in my head that I got from looking at models that I thought I was not meeting. Now that I know how the fashion and beauty industry have used this for their benefit I try to only shop at places that push for models of all sizes and for diversity within their models. Unlearning traditional ideals of what makes a woman beautiful and realizing that true beauty lies within our uniqueness and differences has made me so much happier and so much more in love with myself (:
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