FASHION True style comes in different sizes

Larger women want to feel pretty and sexy, too.
By KATHRYN WEXLER
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
MIAMI -- Abby Zeichner wears Versace, but only when she daydreams.
That's because Versace doesn't come in size 18. Nor do most designer jeans. Or sparkly camisoles. Or slinky dresses.
"I don't want elastic waistbands and the soccer-mom look," said Zeichner, 37, sitting in a South Beach Starbucks on a recent visit to Miami from New York. "I should be able to get up and feel pretty and sexy."
When Zeichner designed clothing for stores for teens, she couldn't get the stores to carry even a size 14. So last year she launched the Abby Z Collection, with exactly the styles she herself longed for.
In the beginning, most buyers wouldn't return her calls. But somehow all that changed about six months ago.
"I don't know why -- people just got it all of a sudden," said Zeichner, wearing three-inch heels and her very own tight jeans and purple print poncho in silk.
Selected Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom stores began carrying Abby Z in the last several months. Her line arrived recently at various Lord & amp; Taylor stores. Bloomingdale's is putting the apparel in three stores later this month.
"We like that Abby Z is the Abby Z customer herself," said Marisa Gottlieb, senior assistant buyer for Bloomingdale's. "We also like that it's a little hipper and more youthful, trendy, yet the fabrics are very high quality."
Describing plus-size clothing as "hip" is a recent phenomenon. Gilda Gevis opened a store by the same name 16 years ago in Aventura, Fla., to dress women who were like herself, a size 20. But back then, most of what she had to choose from were what she calls "fat ladies clothes."
That was then
"They were boxy, shapeless and matronly or with big old floral prints," Gevis said. "We didn't have clothes that were the counterpart of the regular marketplace."
When clothing manufacturers realized in the last decade that larger women were happy to pay for nice clothes, often they merely doubled the girth. But without altering the cuts to accommodate different proportions, the clothes were a poor fit -- and sometimes still are, Gottlieb said.
That, although the number commonly quoted by those in the fashion industry is that more than 50 percent of women in the United States are size 14 or larger. Some higher-end designers like Ellen Tracy and Dana Buchman make clothes for larger women, which are carried in better department stores and boutiques. And I.N.C., at Burdines-Macy's, has a line that appeals to curvy younger women.
Still, when it comes to fashion, being big in America isn't easy. Claudette Armbrister, who was crowned Ms. Plus Florida 2003, is a size 22-24 and usually buys clothes from Lane Bryant, Ashley Stewart and Roaman's online catalog. But when she walks into department stores -- other than J.C. Penney -- she feels like a second-class citizen.
That's because the bigger clothes are tucked away on top floors, in basements or far behind the Misses sections.
"It almost seems as if they're embarrassed of us," said Armbrister, of Miami. "But we are here to stay. So bring our clothes down by the little girls."
Wising up
The clothing industry is getting wiser, however. Said Marc Shomberg, manager of Gilda Gevis, "My customers are 30 to 60, business women or retired women who have disposable income."
Old Navy now has jeans and separates in sizes 16 to 26. Wal-Mart is adding sportswear to its Just My Size line (JMS) for larger women, and labels will reflect which items are best for a woman shaped like an apple versus one shaped like an hourglass.
"I think more and more we have become aware of the difference of the proportions in terms of women's shapes," said JMS Designer Director Regina Martin. "Before they just defined her as plus."