07 December 2016

Sizing in the business of fashion



I just read this article about magazine editors having difficulty getting fashion houses to provide non-sample-sized clothes for photo shoots. I was going to tweet it out but realized I had too much to say.

How disappointing of the fashion houses! Not every woman who wants to buy your clothes is a size zero. If you want to sell clothes to real people, it might make sense to have them photographed on real people. If you want to sell your crap with much better profit margins (accessories, perfume, etc.), you would be wise not to piss off your target audience. In case you hadn't noticed, all that stuff is size-less. And has huge markups. But people are willing to pay to access a part of the lifestyle you're shilling.

How short-sighted! It must be odd to live in a bubble like that. To think that a modern business can simply ignore swathes of the marketplace with no consequences. To think that the marketplace won't notice. Everything is grist in the 24-hour news cycle, or I wouldn't have seen that article in the first place. Bad publicity can take your business down, scaring off your partners and backers, not to mention alienating customers.

Of course, I don't know all the details and logistics - I can imagine an instance where a look is fresh off the runway and only available in the sample size for some reason, with no possibility of getting it made in time for a deadline. But that would seem to be the exception. Samples can be sewn up in all sorts of sizes, if someone wants it. If a well-known publication is asking for clothes that will fit their cover star, that fashion house should want it. The goal is to sell your stuff, and if it's on every newstand in town, that will sell your stuff.

Frankly, if I were the magazine editor, I'd like to think I would take a stand on this. There certainly would be concerns about advertisers. My stand would be to create an Emperor's New Clothes issue. Tastefully photographed nude shots of everyone for all the stories (maybe with accessories from accessory-only houses?) plus a list of all the houses that refused to provide clothes that would fit real humans.

Or the editor could call me! I'd be happy to knit up sweaters customized to fit. While I write garment patterns to fit "only" seven sizes, the great thing about knitting is that it is adaptable to pretty much any size or shape.

Thanks for stopping by, reading my little rant, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen
P.S. How could no one want to dress Leslie Jones?! She is awesome. I would make her a sweater any day.

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