Why Can’t I Find Clothes That Fit?
89% of women are more body confident when they like what they what they wear. But only 15% are actually wearing clothes that make them feel good every day. Is this something you can relate to? Last year, we interviewed over a thousand women and discovered these results. If there is such a big reward for wearing clothes that we like, why aren't we wearing clothes that we like everyday? Well, it’s oftentimes not easy to find clothes that fit.
In fact, our research revealed that 82% of women have recently struggled to find clothes that fit. And we're not just talking about size; shape is the most reported factor, with height and age also playing a significant role.
In the first episode of our new Podcast, Fashion Fits, hosted by Sarah Neill, Founder and CEO of Mys Tyler, and Sarah Cohen, Founder of The Styling Advisory, we spoke with industry experts Holly Richards (Founder of Ample Folk) and Sylvie Wilson (Co-Founder of INSYZE and Dani Marie The Label), who have started their own brands and are developing products because of the fit issue.
Throughout our conversation, Holly and Sylvie share how they’ve been navigating the complexities around fit and explain why there isn't a quick or simple solution to the problems we face. In the end, we describe steps that can be taken to help us all feel good in what we wear.
What inspired the creation of Ample Folk, INSYZE, and Dani Marie the Label?
Holly started Ample Folk because of her desire for a sports bra and being unable to find one that actually fit her body. So, she decided to start designing one in 2020. The sports bra she’s designing isn’t just any sports bra. “There's some patent pending technology in there, which is proving to be very difficult to scale up and down the sizes and make sure it works for every type of body that we want to service. So that's still in development. But while that's in development, we released our first couple of products, which are plus size towels, so 2.2meter long towels to fit around up to a size Australian 32. And, we've got robes and plenty of other products coming very soon.”
Sylvie and her sister Danielle started INSYZE for similar reasons, as her sister, who has also been plus sized her whole life, was never able to find anything she liked when we went shopping. Sylvie explains, “I just thought it was really unfair that she did not have the full fashion experience that I did. And so we wanted to create a marketplace where you could discover all the brands in your size in one place and and find other people that look like you and create a great community, which has been going now for the last couple of years and it's been really great.”
While creating INSYZE, she shares that she found “certain items were missing from the shopping experience” for plus size shoppers, “and so it actually inspired us to create our own brand, which is Dani Marie The Label, an elevated women's wear brand in sizes 14 through to 30.” So, Sylvie has some really valuable experience “on both the marketplace side working with many retailers, creating all sorts of different size ranges, as well as my own brand and the experience of bringing clothing to market and the whole fit experience from a manufacturing point of view.”
Why can’t we find clothes that fit in stores?
One of the reasons we can’t find clothes that fit is because some clothes aren’t designed to fit the average sized bodies. Holly explains, “67% of the population in Australia are wearing a size 16 and above. That's the majority of Australians. So therefore it makes sense to have the majority of your clothing be above a size 16. That's not the case in store, right? It's less than 10% have above a size 16.”
Holly continues, explaining that, “A lot of these retailers are claiming that the plus sizes don't sell, that people aren't buying these larger sizes. And the reason that people aren't buying those larger sizes is for two reasons:
The clothes are not made for larger bodies
Marketing
“A brand will create these clothes in these sizes, but then they won't have fat models, they won't have plus size models in their campaigns. Or if they do, it's one, maybe two people when, as we just said, the majority of people who are buying these clothes, in theory in the population are above a size 16. So wouldn't it make sense to have all your models that size? Unfortunately, it does come back to diet culture and the stigma around weight and weight bias, which is a really dicey, tricky area to go, but it can't be ignored when it comes to this. It's such a huge part of it.”
Why don’t some extended size ranges suit all body shapes? What’s the importance of considered design when it comes to fit, aside from the size?
When brands try to size up their straight size pieces to plus sizes, the result isn’t a the right fit. “While the clothes may technically be the width or the measurements that they should be for larger bodies,” Holly explains, “the cut is awful. It feels terrible. The fabrics, polyester, you know, these clothes are not carefully, thoughtfully made in the same way they are for straight sizes. They're just graded up by those five centimeters.”
Dani Marie The Label starts at plus sizes, but has considered expanding into straight sizes. While considering the size expansion, Sylvie discovered that “it was actually very tricky to take certain items that were designed for curves and then make them fit for someone who was a size eight. Because when you're a larger size, as Holly was talking about, you carry your weight in different areas.”
Dani Marie designs for more room - “it's one of the things that we're proud of as as a plus size brand. But then translating that into a size eight, ten, 12 isn't as simple because the proportions are then wrong.”
What are some of the technical difficulties involved in making different sized garments?
When designing different size ranges, manufacturers need to work off of completely different blocks. A block is what’s used in pattern making for clothing manufacturing to create the shape of the clothes. Sylvie explains that the blocks are part of the technical differences of creating sizes XXL and 2XL.
She shares, “You would think that that's the same, but it's not. An XL is a size developed for the smaller size range, the standard sizing set of small to large, XL, and XXL, with the XXL made with the straight size block, and the 2XL created using the plus size block. So, when brands are creating sizes in beyond an XXL, they’re using a different technical block. So if you're shopping and you're trying an XXL and think, ‘Oh, the 2X will fit me,’ or vice versa, you'd actually find there is a big discrepancy in the way that that item fits, and it's all to do with the block and the pattern.”
“I know sometimes as a consumer it feels really frustrating to go into a shop and be like, ‘Why am I size 12 in this store but not in this store?’ But it's all to do with the way that brands are using blocks and pattern making, and there is no standardization. I was thinking about this and thought even if the government in Australia made it a legal requirement that we all have the same sizes, then we would have to get the governments in the US, in China, in India, in the UK, across all Europe to all agree on this,” says Sylvie.
So what can we do when looking for fashion that’ll fit our bodies? Take your measurements and look at the measurements of the garments on the size guides, rather than specific sizes. Sylvie continues, “You could actually be a range of different sizes, and I don't think that's a bad thing, because then you don't define yourself by your size. And a lot of women do, and we really don't need to. It's just a number to help you find a garment that fits. And if the garment doesn't fit you, then that's the garments fault, not you.”
How do manufacturers’ minimum order limits prevent brands from catering to all sizes?
When it comes to producing clothes, beyond the costs of research and development (R&D) to create sizing and styles, there’s another cost: manufacturers’ minimum order quantities.
Sylvie describes her experience, explaining that, “as a small brand, you're taking quite a big risk when you place an order trying to work out what range of sizes you want and which styles are going to be working. And that risk is intensified when you have a minimum order quantity of, say, 100 units, which is what ours is, and within that minimum order quantity, you're not allowed to have 10-12 different sizes, because the manufacturers are trying to keep their operations lean.”
Manufacturers have different limits in place. She continues, “For example, you can have a minimum order quantity of 100, but you need to have six sizes within that range. So if you then want to produce more sizes, suddenly you've got another minimum order quantity of 100 units. So that's then 200 units that you have to produce. And as a small brand, that's quite a lot. And there's a lot of capital that goes into that. It's just another example of how you're restricted as a small brand to be able to cater as much as you can. You have to start somewhere, and you can try to make small steps and always aim to do better. I understand people's frustrations when they don't see their size. I guess one of the reasons, it's not an excuse, but it's definitely a reason [that brands don’t cater to more sizes.] I do think bigger brands could do better there. They do have a bit more capital, but again, they're still taking that that financial risk.”
“What's really wild to me is that Sylvie has done what I think is logical and has chosen those six sizes to be plus sizes,” shares Holly. “So what I don't get is brands in 2023, or brands ever, who will go out and choose a size 6 to a size 14 as their size range, when that's only catering to a really small percentage of the market. As I said before, 67% of Australian women wear a size 16 and above. So that is the vast majority of Australians. But less than 6% of brands offer above a size 16. It doesn't make sense to me. Yes, I get that it's expensive. Six sizes is not many sizes. But why are people only choosing the smaller sizes and not choosing the larger sizes when that's where all of us are wearing clothes? That just doesn't add up for me.”
What’s the role that styling plays when it comes to our perceptions of 'fit?’
Another factor that affects fit is styling. Sarah Cohen explains, “The way you put your outfits together, is incredibly important. It’s not only what you put together, but the little tiny techniques and styling details that turn it from just wearing a top and pants into a freaking amazing outfit. And I think that that's the other thing that a lot of women, a lot of individuals, are challenged by.”
She continues, “When it comes to fit as customers, we tend to purchase the garments and then we put them on our body and we go, Oh, well, this isn't as exciting as, you know, the person I saw on Mys Tyler, or the person I saw on Instagram. It doesn't look as good, therefore it doesn't fit me. It doesn't suit me. I won't wear it. So I think the other the other missing piece of the puzzle as to why clothing doesn't fit is that the clothing may in fact fit if you know how to style it and alter it.”
Brands are trying to solve the issue of poor fit. As Sarah Neill explains, “they're trying to solve it from the point of view of lowering returns because the return rate is like approaching 40 to 50% in some cases for online shopping of clothes and shoes. Size is a way oversimplification for a woman's body. We've got so much variation within a size including tall, petite, curvy, straight, et cetera. To the other Sarah's point, I think style is honestly like 50% of it. I have really struggled myself with fashion. I find it really hard to know what to pick up and what to put together. And I've had items in my wardrobe that have just never fit right until I tried styling them with the right pieces. Just knowing how to style your pieces, and potentially altering something, or adding a belt to cinch it in or r scrunching up the sleeves, really changes the fit. I was wearing a blazer the other day and Sarah showed me that the arms weren’t the right fit for me, but if I scrunched up the sleeves, it would look good. And it did!”
What are some future predictions in manufacturing to solve the 'fit' issue?
“When we're looking at solving this problem, I do think that AI is the is the solution, as much as that is such an on trend thing to say and, you know, of course I'm saying that in 2023,” says Holly. She also explains that, “there are brands like Citizen Wolf who are creating t-shirts based on the measurements of the individual who's purchasing the item. I think that is the way that this is going to be solved eventually.”
Holly continues, “The way we create clothes in 100 years time is going to look completely different to the way we make clothes now because we know that the way we make clothes now is very, very broken. And what Sylvie and I are both trying to do, well, we're all trying to do really, is make the best of a bad situation, right? Like we're trying to find hacks and tricks, but none of them are really actual solutions. What's really exciting is that those solutions, I don't think we can even imagine them right now. I think that they are going to be something that we don't even really know how that's going to look or how it's going to feel because it's going to be so out there. And in a way, it's kind of exciting. Like the fact that we're even having this conversation, the fact that people are talking about this more and are upset. We don't like that we can't find clothes in our size. It's not okay. And so I think that the impetus is going to be on brands and on the industry as a whole to to start making those changes. And I think it's really exciting.”
All in all, to recap some of issues at hand regarding fit, Sarah Neill summarizes the top questions well:
Does the clothes come in your size?
If it comes in your size, will it even suit your body because of all the other fit dimensions (your height, your body’s shape, et cetera)?
And then, you've also got the secondary issue of even if it exists in your size, how do you find it? Because it may not be carried in store. So then you have to try and search online to try and find the brands or retailers that do carry clothes that are going to fit your body. Depending on the marketing, they might not be marketed to you either. So how do you find the sites relevant for you?
And finally, the relevancy of styling.
To listen to the full conversation, tune in to the episode below. Huge thanks to Holly and Sylvie for being part of this conversation!