The Business of Body Curves
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2018
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Designers and retailers have long thought of the plus size market as high-risk. Predicting what these customers will buy can be difficult, as they tend to be more cautious about styles.
Making larger clothes can be more expensive; higher costs for fabric cannot always be passed on to consumers. In turn, plus-size women shopped less because the industry was not serving them well.
Louise O'Reilly is one of Europe's best known plus-size models. She runs a fashion blog called Style Me Curvy, and she says women need to feel good about themselves before they will lose weight.
Weight loss expert Steve Miller, who lost several stone himself and now helps others to do the same, says pandering to the overweight is bad for their health.
Jacqueline Windsor, a partner at accountants PwC, says retailers may be waking up to the opportunity of styling for larger sizes. Vishala Sri Pathma presents.
(Picture: plus size fashion model in blue dress outdoors. Credit: Getty Images.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Vashala Sri Pathma and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:07.3 | Coming up, we take a look at the business of body curves. |
| 0:11.5 | The world of the plus size. |
| 0:13.5 | For decades, curve clothing was banished to the back of the store. |
| 0:17.2 | This is where my issue is with the fashion industry wears. |
| 0:20.0 | For so long, people have been left in the dark, have been left feel that they don't deserve to feel like everybody else. |
| 0:28.0 | But now fashion experts are saying it might be the glimmer of hope that shopping malls need. |
| 0:33.1 | I think it's pretty exciting. I mean, you know, in an arguably really tough retail environment, pressure on both top line as well as a number of costs headwinds. |
| 0:41.0 | I think plus side is one of those areas for pockets of growth. |
| 0:43.8 | That's all in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:52.1 | When it comes to dresses or suits, a good fit is everything. Or at least that's according to fashion designers. It's not what you buy, it's how you wear it. But for many, these very designers, both high street and premium retailers, have only just found the measuring tape. |
| 1:13.8 | I'm talking about the industry of plus size clothing. |
| 1:20.0 | The term plus size or curve refers to clothing for men and women who are larger than the average person. |
| 1:25.0 | Designers and retailers have long thought of the plus size segment as high risk. |
| 1:29.4 | Predicting what these customers will do can be difficult as they tend to be more cautious about styles. But making larger clothes can be more expensive. Higher costs for |
| 1:36.0 | fabric cannot always be passed on to consumers and in turn plus size women shopped less because |
| 1:41.8 | the industry was not serving them well. Well, it's 2018 and I'm |
| 1:46.6 | pleased to report that times are changing. The struggling industry of bricks and mortar retail are |
| 1:52.3 | looking to niche ends of the market to shield them from the onslaught of the likes of Amazon and Google |
| 1:57.6 | shopping. We'll hear more about its financial appeal in just a moment. |
| 2:02.0 | But first, let's find out more about how the plus size industry managed to move out from |
| 2:06.9 | the shadows. Louise O'Reilly is one of Europe's best-known plus-size models. She runs a fashion |
... |
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