It’s your fault you’re fat: Judgements of responsibility and social conduct in the fashion industry

Abstract

Examining the beliefs in the fashion industry surrounding the obese is critical to understanding discrimination issues and the resultant fit and sizing issues for plus-size consumers. The fashion industry offers certain styles in limited sizing, which in turn structures our society in such a way that only certain sizes can participate in choosing and wearing fashionable clothing. Therefore, the need to examine the people’s beliefs who will work in this industry is critical to restructuring the sizing, fit and discriminatory issues experienced by fat consumers. Understanding these beliefs among student designers, or the ‘gatekeepers’ of the fashion industry, may explain why plus-size women repeatedly report feeling discriminated against by the fashion industry and have difficulty finding clothing in styles, colours and fits they desire. The results of the study indicate that fashion design and merchandising students have strong negative beliefs about obese people. This article investigates the reasoning for such disdain towards obese bodies in the fashion industry and hopes to rectify the situation by offering suggestions to normalize fat bodies and incorporate information about plus-size consumers into fashion design and apparel merchandising courses.

Coping by crossdressing: an exploration of exercise clothing for obese heterosexual women

“…Our findings continue to confirm previous studies where larger women perceive there to be limited clothing choices (Chowdhary and Beale 1988;Colls 2004;Colls and Evans 2014;Christel 2014;Kwon and Parham 1994;Peters 2014).…”

“…Before determining whether anger or sympathy is felt for another person, one must first decide if that person is to be blamed for his/her condition or situation. In the case of the present study, obesity is often thought of as a personal problem and reacted to with anger (Christel 2014). "Anger is an accusation, or value judgment, that follows from the belief that another person could and should have done otherwise" (Weiner 1995, p. 17).…”

“…Research shows evidence for price discrimination, limited clothing choices, and an overall discouraging shopping environment for people who fall outside of standardized mass-market apparel sizes (Chowdhary and Beale 1988;Christel 2014;Colls 2004;Colls and Evans 2014;Kwon and Parham 1994;Peters 2014). The labeling of apparel as Page 3 of 19 Christel et al Fash Text (2016) 3:11 "plus-size" is often debated and the physical separation of these clothes from the mainstream shopping environment contributes to the othering of fat bodies .…”

“Fat People Exercise Too!”: Perceptions and Realities of Shopping for Women’s Plus-Size Exercise Apparel

“…Previous researchers have documented that fashion design and merchandising students (Christel, 2014; Rudd, Harmon, Heiss, & Buckworth, 2015) hold antifat attitudes and negative stereotypes similar to those in the general population (Puhl & Heuer, 2009). Moreover, like other future professionals (e.g., preservice teachers, premed students; Glock, Beverborg, & Müller, 2016; Phelan et al, 2015), fashion and merchandising students’ beliefs toward individuals with large bodies (Christel, 2014; Rudd et al, 2015) are quite negative, which may contribute to the segregation and misrepresentation of plus-size apparel. Christel (2016) suspects that weight bias is an underlying mechanism for decision-making in the fashion industry as many designers and merchandisers harbor negative stereotypes toward obese individuals, finding them unattractive and inferior to thinner bodies.…”

What plus-size means for plus-size women: A mixed-methods approach

“…There are rarely words used to classify non-plus size clothing because, anything other than plus-size is considered the norm, standard, regular or in-group. The importance of being thin is perpetuated by fewer plus-size clothing options (Christel, 2014), and this practice maintains the power of who can and cannot participate in certain fashions. Words used to define consumer groups remain a critical tenet of fashion communications that studies communication in design through visual branding, trends, culture, styling and imagery, digital illustration, social media, brand development and brand management.…”