News flash: the plus-size shopper is an aspirational shopper, too.
This isn’t new information to the majority of women in the US who wear a size a size 14. However, we are often at the back of the fashion bus. Manufacturers and designers would make larger size clothing while not truly focusing on the style factor. Curvy women want tailored career wear, sexy formal wear, appealing casual wear, the perfect little black dress and naturally when it’s time to walk down the aisle, she wants to have her choice of stylish wedding gowns to fit, flatter and caress her curves.
In spite of this most plus size women have a hard time finding styles they want to wear. This is only magnified in the wedding industry when she searches for the perfect wedding gown and bridesmaids gowns.
While the ASTM standard for the American female form was updated several times from 1942 to 1994, the basic shape — the classic hourglass figure — never changed. Unfortunately, that failed to reflect the true diversity of female forms in the American population, which Alvanon discovered when it began body scanning and documenting actual consumer shapes roughly 10 years ago.
The bridal magazine world is experiencing lower overall sales.
Much of the content of the magazines hasn’t changed, focusing on trends, runway inspiration and a lot of advertisements. Occasionally, they have an article about bridal gowns for curvy brides. It usually runs anywhere from 2 to 3 pages, with some photos and some tips. In an age where information is right under their fingertips, they haven’t noticed that the number of plus size brides has increased from 33% in 2009 to 38% out of the 2.2 million weddings that took place in 2012. That’s about 836,000 brides and the number is expected to grow.
While designers will be watching the red carpet for the 2013 Oscars to see the silhouette trends, colors and dress construction that we’ll likely see in the Spring 2014 Bridal Market Collection, they’d do well to think how they can make the designs work for curvy women who want to feel and look special.
I along with Sheri Collins of the Bridal Concierge will be watching to see how we can help our clients find the best styles to suit their curves. If you have any questions don’t forget to tweet us @TheCurvyStylist, @chamein and @CurvyConcierge. Perhaps the magazines and designers will reach out to us and show us something we can work with.
Read more posts by Chamein Canton. Chamein is a blogger for JenningsWire.
