Plus size model Whitney Thompson of America's Next Top Model

In light of the retail landscape right now, some retailers are responding with what seems like a good business decision: pulling plus-size clothing, which doesn’t turn much of a profit, from brick and mortar stores, offering them only online.  But when clothing giant Ann Taylor announced their decision to do the same, all hell broke loose on the blogosphere.

Look, it’s true that fashion knows no size (seriously, check out the Fatshionistas – those girls are seriously good at pulling together an outfit), and that as an overall systemic issue, the fact that it’s hard to find adult clothes in plus sizes sucks. I get it, and I’m incredibly sympathetic.

This post is not meant to be fat-shaming or anything else – ultimately, I just wanted to add something different to the conversation, which is some industry insight as to WHY some of these decisions may have been made.

An interesting sidebar is the issue of vanity sizing.  A few years ago, we had a similar trend that affected the other end of the scale – I, at 5’2 and (at the time) 115 pounds, could not shop in a number of stores.  In fact, while working at Abercrombie in college (shut up), I had to walk across the mall and dress myself in Abercrombie Kids just to meet the dress code.  Yet, we didn’t see the sort of venomous reaction to the idea that adult women had to dress themselves in kids clothes that we’re now seeing directed at the idea that adult women need to order adult clothes online.

That aside, there are some very real, tangible reasons why plus size clothing is being phased out.

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