Melody Mae: Dear Fat People;
This is a truly excellent post.
If a brand doesn’t do your size -
They don’t do your size.
It’s as simple as that. There’s no point rallying for bigger sizes, no point in arguing with the brand, no point throwing a fit.
Because with larger sizes comes larger bills - they require more fabric, more knowledge and more labour in most cases. And if you’re a small brand working to a specific knowledge of your target audience, there’s not going to be the funds - and maybe not even the audience - to produce what you think the brand should produce.
Try sitting down at a sewing machine and producing a garment that fits your body in the way you would like. Count in the amount of research you will have to do about adjusting patterns to your body’s fit, count in the amount of fabric that you have to buy [because let’s face it, if you’re fat and you sew, you know that meter of fabric that your non-fat friend made a whole dress out of wouldn’t cover you.] and then think that if you had a set budget, just how much would you be able to get out of it - and would it sell?
Maybe it would. Maybe if you made a brand that catered to larger people, you’d be rolling in money. But if you’re a brand that for numerous years has made items in specific sizes to mirror your target audience, adding sizes upwards of that could fail completely - and then you’re in trouble.
Now this might sound horribly bitchy, it might sound backwards in the fat acceptance movement, but when I hear that indie brands, whose largest sizes aren’t selling so well as it is, are getting complaints and abuse for not “doing their size”, it drives me insane.
In the end, in the words of Kiss Me Deadly’s Catherine - “[..] if we don’t do your size; its not you, its us. We can’t afford you, dahling!” [Do check out this link - it’s a fantastic breakdown of why KMD doesn’t do larger sizes, which relates to most indie brands]
