Improvability Blog

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BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH STYLE, SHAPE & PERSONALITY

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Thursday
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As a business owner in the world of image, you need to be aware of the latest statistics about your industry.  Here are 7 facts / statistics about the rapid growth of the plus-size clothing market.

Use them to impress your clients but, more importantly, to hone your marketing.

Fact #1

Hot on the heels of news that Marc Jacobs is set to become the first major fashion house to launch a plus-size line, statistics gathered by market research company Mintel has revealed that a quarter of UK women are now a size 18 or above.

The American designer label revealed earlier this month that it is in discussions to produce a clothing range catering for women bigger than a size 14.

Fact #2

It is likely to be a shrewd move as research by Mintel shows that the plus-size market for womenswear has increased by 45% in the past five years to £3.8 billion, compared to growth in the overall womenswear market of just 15%. Larger-size menswear has also grown steadily by 6% to £1.9 billion between 2005 and 2010.

Fact #3

However, while Mintel estimates that around 6.2 million now fall into the plus-size category, many of them still struggle to find clothes that fit.

Tamara Sender, Senior Fashion Analyst at Mintel which surveyed 20,000 Britons, said, “Rising levels of obesity in the UK mean that plus-size consumers are increasing and these shoppers are looking for improved choice in plus-size clothing and more fashionable garments.

Fact #4

“Given the numbers of not just plus-size women, but also men, with a third wearing XL clothes or bigger, these consumers can no longer be considered a minority or niche sector and retailers of all types of clothing need to wake up to the growth potential of this market.”

Fact #5

The most-purchased clothing size in the UK today is a 12, with 31% of women buying this size.

Fact #6

The second most-purchased clothing size in the UK today is a 14.

Fact #7

But with 10.1 million women in the UK (equivalent to nearly 40% of the female population) wearing clothes sized 16 and over, there is growing demand for clothing more representative of the overall population.

Over half of women who are size 18 said that not enough shops offer a range of choices to cater for different sizes and more than four in ten believe that plus-size clothes tend to be less fashionable than smaller sizes.

“Many high street retailers have still not extended their range of clothes to provide wider choices for the growing number of shoppers that do not fit into the standard size mould. With rates of obesity increasing, the new generation of younger, fashion-conscious plus-size consumers are looking for the same trend-led clothes that exist for slimmer women,” added Sender.

Image: Elena Grunert

Thanks to Manda Kent Burns who sent in this article

EN 13402 is a European standard for labelling clothes sizes. It is based on body dimensions, measured in centimetres, rather than the extremely arbitrary sizes which differ from shop to shop, and from manufacturer to manufacturer. 

Its aim was to replace many older national dress-size systems, starting in the year 2006. I’ve yet to see any evidence of this in UK shops but, then I have to admit, that I don’t go shopping for clothes very often!

As we clearly aren’t there just yet, maybe these charts will help, especially if you’re travelling.

Women’s Clothing sizes

Women’s Shoe sizes

Women’s Lingerie sizes

Women’s Bra sizes

Bra measuring guide

Women’s Hat sizes

Calculating your own hat size

Bra measuring guide