A Big Idea Catches On: Trendy Clothes in Plus Sizes

It was the ultimate fashion victory: Sixteen-year-old Shannon Bishop sported the jeans she bought on vacation, and heads turned. Her friends wanted to know where they too could buy the dark denim pants with flared legs and rainbow stripes running cheerfully down the sides.

“They were available only in plus sizes,” said Shannon, an Arlington Baptist School student who lives in Randallstown, Md. “I said, ‘Yes!’ ”

Shannon, who wears between a size 18 and 20, isn’t the only full-figured young woman cheering these days. Once relegated to apologetic tunics, last year’s jeans and dresses that only a matron could love, teens and young women who wear sizes 14 and larger have more clothing choices than ever. Seeing dollar signs and a market hungry for fashion diversity, designers are jumping on the bandwagon to offer contemporary, hip clothes in plus sizes.

“There’s a reason why (designers) are doing it,” said Yvonne Buonaro, designer and co-creator of Los Angeles-based Kiyonna Klothing, a plus-sized fashion line. “Over half the United States is plus-sized. It’s definitely growing, and it’s going to keep growing.”

Retailers are eager to capture this market, especially as the weight of many of America’s children and teens continues to rise.

While some basic items had been available for years, full-figured women are beginning to demand the same up-to-the-minute, youthful styles--shapely leather jackets, boot-cut trousers and cuffed denim jeans--that are readily accessible to smaller women. And retailers are listening.

“The manufacturers and retailers have realized that, demographically in age and income, full-figured women are identical to their thinner counterparts,” said Nancy LeWinter, a co-founder and publication director of Mode, the popular fashion magazine catering to women sizes 12 and up.

BCBG Max Azria, a designer line, recently launched fashions in sizes 1X to 3X (14 to 22) that are “exactly what is on the floor” in smaller sizes, said Jennifer Highman, a sales manager for the company.

“We are not changing it to a tent dress,” Highman said. “We are a contemporary designer. “

Included in the collection are slip dresses with adjustable straps, twin sets and T-shirts with keyhole necklines. Highman said the clothes will range from about $46 for T-shirts to $266 for a constructed jacket.

In 1996, friends Buonaro and Kim Camarella launched Kiyonna Klothing. Available in boutiques and on their Web site (https://www.kiyonna.com), the line, in sizes 14 to 28, includes an Audrey Hepburn-style boat-necked black dress, palazzo pants and scooped-neck dresses.

Camarella said she and Buonaro originally envisioned a target age range of 19 to 34 years old, but many of their customers are in their 40s and 50s. Much of the emphasis is on what Camarella calls “body-conscious” dressing.

To fully appreciate how much the rules have changed, all you had to do was see the venerable Lane Bryant’s Venezia fall fashion show in New York. In the past, many of Lane Bryant’s clothes were considered utilitarian and pleasant but not cutting-edge.

Yet, there was actress Camryn Manheim of ABC’s “The Practice” walking down the runway in a siren-red tank dress baring her ample shoulders. Voluptuous models flashed hints of bare midriff, and showed off short skirts and tanks.

Owned by the Limited Inc., Lane Bryant has recently focused its attention on women ages 17 to 30. That translates into cargo pants, ball gown-inspired skirts and faded, embroidered jeans with frayed hems.

“Within the last three years, we’ve made the young plus-sized woman our focus,” spokeswoman Catherine Lippincott said. “We started asking them, ‘What do you want to see?’ They want the exact same things that their size-6 friends wear. They just want it in their size.”

That’s good news for young women such as Nikki Kidd, a 25-year-old loyal Lane Bryant customer whose fashion tastes run from jeans to pantsuits.

“For work, I prefer to wear pantsuits with a long coat. Until recently, that kind of stuff was hard to find,” said Kidd, a secretary who wears a size 18. Talbot’s recently debuted its Talbot’s Woman catalog, a collection of the company’s classic clothing in larger sizes. Gitano rolled out the “Git More” collection of jeans for plus-sized girls last year. Former MTV reporter Abbie Kearse developed her Abbie Lynn line, based on her love of funky, designer clothes once unavailable to her because of her size.

Of course, it’s impossible to discuss this fashion revolution without mentioning the success story that is Mode magazine. Only 2 years old, the glossy monthly has had a profound impact on the full-figured fashion industry and has proved the viability of that market. It also has helped catapult the careers of a cadre of plus-sized models such as Emme, Kate Dillon and Angellika.

Mode’s younger counterpart is Girl, an ethnically diverse magazine aimed at teenage girls of all sizes.