Laura Brady is 23 and a size 18. She was first approached about modeling more than five years ago while still in high school. "I said, `No way. The only clothes for girls my size are grandmothers' clothes,' " she says.
Now she is modeling part time and sees a walloping change for the better in what she can buy.
"I can find leather pants that I could never find then. I don't have to go scouting. I can go to normal stores ...," says Brady, who works for Verizon Wireless in Kansas City. "In the last five years, they have finally realized that everybody is not a size 3 or a 4."
Large-size women's clothing is the fastest-growing area in the apparel arena these days, according to NDP, a sales tracking service. And much of the recent growth is in a decidedly more youthful product as fashionable and hip as clothes in smaller sizes.
The stylish woman in her teens and well beyond has more choices. Plus sizes are slowly emerging in junior lines. Stores such as Old Navy, the Gap and TJ Maxx are offering large sizes.
And what's perhaps most important, celebrity role models and the influence of Mode magazine have triggered a subtle but definite shift in attitude, observers contend. The large woman has more reasons to feel good about her body image.
Lauren Simmons, a freshman at the University of Kansas and part-time plus-size model, agrees. "Men don't like women too skinny," she says. "They like curves."
She delights in shopping these days and relishes looks such as python print pants, turtleneck sweaters and jazzy skirts for dancing. And she buys sizes 14 to 16 or extra-large at stores as diverse as the Gap, Urban Outfitters, Lane Bryant and Abercrombie & Fitch. A striking 6 feet tall, she sometimes opts for guys' jeans at the Gap for the length, but otherwise seems to assemble her favorite things with ease.
At the invitation of The Kansas City Star, she took a shopping trip to select some items for a photograph. She put on the Gap's camel zip sweater, for example, with a plaid A-line skirt. She was taken with both a red and black dot, and soft paisley handkerchief skirt, which she paired with a denim jacket, all at Lane Bryant.
Nicole Brewer, a senior style editor with Mode magazine, which is devoted to large sizes, agrees a few years have made an enormous difference.
"Teens are starting to realize they have fashion options," she says.
And with role model cover girls such as singer Trisha Yearwood and other celebrities, Mode has helped give large young women an increased sense of validation, Brewer says. It's "the first magazine that makes them feel beautiful."
At the same time, Seventeen magazine has also added large young women as part its fashion presentation mix.
On the retail scene, plus-size chain Lane Bryant realized its customer strength was in the mature baby boomer market about four years ago. To spiff up its image, in 1997 the company launched Venecia Jeans, a line targeted to younger, hipper women, ages 16 to 28. It scheduled sexy fashion shows broadcast on the Internet and brought in celebrity models such as Camryn Manheim, Mia Tyler and Queen Latifah.
The line spills over with trendy looks such as skirts with bead fringe and oh-wow patterns, backless tops, glittering halters, sheers and camisoles. These customers "expect to have the exact same fashion as skinny women," says Catherine Lippincott, director of public relations. "And you have to get it to them fast."
This customer "is not ashamed of her body size," she says. "She just accepts it as given."
According to a recent report by Cotton Inc., the Bryant move shifted its customer base. The woman under 29 now represents 30 percent of Lane Bryant's sales, up from 10 percent before the new initiative. The company expects the number to reach 40 percent by the end of this year.
Other retailers are paying attention to the youthful plus arena. Sheldon Zeldes, Dillard's divisional merchandise manager for special sizes, recognizes the potential for growth in what he calls a "young attitude."
In two years, the fashion priorities have shifted from the traditional dark colors and easy silhouettes to be more like the smaller size lines, he says.
Whatever looks good in the misses sizes, large customers want, too.
"If it's animal print that's in, they want animal," he says.
The store has done well with two lines: Over and Under and Liz Claiborne's Emma James. And he would like to see the apparel industry expand the offerings.
New York's Bloomingdale's is carrying plus sizes from such labels as DKNY and INC.
Alight.Com , a Web site relaunched about two months ago, is devoted totally to plus sizes and has television's Star Jones as the celebrity spokesmodel. Out of more than 110 brands represented, about 40 percent are junior plus lines, traditionally for teens, executive Susan Sommers says.
"The whole plus-size market is underserved," Sommers says. "And the junior plus is particularly underserved. The junior-plus customers want exactly the same look their skinny friends have."
And they don't want to be relegated to the basement or back of the store to find it, she says.
Despite the recent changes, from all accounts, the field still has a long way to go both in clothing fare and attitudes. L.A. Movers, a Los Angeles-based junior line, added plus sizes about a year and a half ago, and it has been an uphill challenge, owner Andy Liggett says. He is selling to Macy's West and Sears Roebuck, but for the most part, he finds "retailers are not willing to take the risk."
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Girlshop.com , CEO Laura Eiseman sees the need for youthful plus sizes but can't find good designer resources. "The women above (sizes) 12 to 14 have been ignored," she says. "I just don't think the cool designers get it yet. There are not a lot of fashion-forward lines out there. ...It's frustrating for us and for women who are plus sizes."
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