The State of the Curvy Community at FFF Weekend LA

*photo courtesy of NOW

It was a passionate group who gathered to listen to a panel discussing The State of the Curvy Community as part of Full Figure Fashion Week, founded by Gwen DeVoe. Bold, beautiful and curvy Chenese Lewis, president of the Hollywood chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) moderated the panel.  Lewis recently made headlines when she posed nude with America's Next Top Model Whitney Thompson as a battle cry for Love Your Body Day, launched by NOW in 1998.
An eclectic mix of representatives from the Curvy Community included actress Sharon Quinn, Reah Norman, fashion director of Plus Model Magazine, Heinrich Saint-Germain from Judgement of Paris, R&B artist Kelly Price, and Judge Karen Mills-Francis.
The mostly African American audience was very vocal about the general lack of availability of quality clothing that fit and what they perceive to be the cold shoulder given to them by Seventh Avenue. The bloggers, retailers, reps from clothing companies, stylists, photographers and plus size models also in attendance, agreed with the consensus that there's a pervasively negative attitude towards being associated with "fatties." Fatty is the new N word, and a recent provocative Marie Claire blog provoked over a thousand comments, some of which were full of fat venom.
The glaring issues facing what is said to be approximately two thirds of the American female population,
are real. A recent Los Angeles Times story discussed the some of the daunting challenges designers and retailers deal with in serving women who wear a larger size.
Nothing's changed in the more than 20 years I've been a member of this club. We've come a long way baby, but the average woman, who allegedly is about 5'5" tall, weighs about 163 pounds and wears a size 14 is still struggling to get dressed.
The few "real women" ad campaigns haven't generated any growth in the use of models and actors who portray the more realistic image of the average consumer.
One of the biggest gripes voiced during the panel discussion was a dearth of plus size models used in advertising, yet no one could answer the age old question, 'how big is big?' Is size 14 representative, size 18, or larger? When I went to work for Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) as the fashion editor in 1991, it was hard to find clothing samples large enough to put on a real plus size model. Subscribers to BBW constantly wrote in to ask how to get companies to use larger models. The same holds true today, and perhaps even more so with the global economy squeezing manufacturers and retailers.
The Internet has fostered entrepreneurship in this lively community. If you Google, you can find just about anything you could ever desire in just about any size. Whether the quality is great, the price justified or the fit accurate, at least it exists. In order for these special size businesses to succeed, they will need the support of the women who say they don't have enough choice. Three specialty fashion magazines, BBW, Mode and It Figures (published by Lane Bryant),  have gone out of business in the last twenty years, all for lack of advertising dollars, indicating the sales at retail just didn't add up.
According to NPD, a retail and consumer behavior research firm based in Port Washington, N.Y., sales of plus size clothing account for only 17% of all women's apparel.
But that raises a question. How are the sales calculated? Is there an arcane method, like the Neilsen Ratings, where only a limited number of house hold viewing habits represent the entire country? The Neilsen Ratings, derived from people 18 - 49, only recently added college students age 21 and up living in college dorms, yet surveys indicate the average age of the TV viewer is 50.
As the two hour panel wrapped up, Lewis called for solutions to resolve the dilemmas of this vibrant demographic.
The usual meet and greet fest afterwards was warm and fuzzy.  I hadn't seen actress Kim Coles  in a few years, we met in the "green room,"at one of the many TV shows I've appeared on. The owners of Abundance, an elegant and chic, large size clothing boutique in Los Angeles were passing out copies of the LA Times article I mentioned earlier. One thing was clear, the Curvy Community is a dynamic and friendly crowd ready for action!