If plus size clothes cost so much more cuz of all the extra fabric, then why are xxs and xl the same price? Why does the price only increase after that point?
Because of the free market
Because from an XS-XL they can use the same size cut of fabric. And by that I mean, they have a long strip of fabric that they cut into the shape of shirts/pants/whatever and then sew two pieces together into a shirt. For anything over XL, they need a larger strip of fabric to take cuts from.
Then you have to consider shape of the body, from XS to XL, the body remains a similar shape
A skinny model, probably an XS or an S
A larger model, probably a large or extra large
Notice how the general body shape is the same, the proportions of chest/waist/legs is relatively similar, just smaller in the smaller model. Now let's look at even larger sizes
The above is Tess Holiday, a person over 300 pounds. As we can see, she has no definable waistline, her upper arms are massive compared to her forearms and there is so much excess fat on her thighs that it's started to fold over on itself. Her body cannot fit the typical designs made for an averaged sized person because she has eaten so much that she no longer resembles the human form.
Here is Virgie Tovar and we have the same issues. No definable waist line as her torso is basically just a blob, the excess fat on her upper arms compared to the narrowing of the forearms would make it incredibly difficult to make a long sleeve shirt that fits, and her legs look slimmer than her bum so any pants she wears are either going to be too tight up top or very loose in the legs.
Fat girl flow. Notice the massive difference in size between her thighs and her calves. She has to stand with her feet apart because of them. How do you design pants around that? On a commercial scale, it's almost impossible. All three of these women are roughly the same size and yet their fat distribution varies wildly. Clothing designers, especially ones for larger companies and not small boutiques, cannot account for every body type possibility for the obese, fat distribution past a certain weight makes that almost impossible. And these are women of the "small' or "medium" fat category, let's look at even bigger women.
Amber Lynn Reid, over 500 pounds. Her lower body area is broader than her shoulders and there is no noticable difference between her thighs and hr calves. Her upper arms have so much excessive fat that it's drooping down over her elbows and we can see a fat fold through her shirt just under her elbow on the left hand side of the page. Her neck is so large is morphs into her chin and she has to walk on the sides of her feet because of weight gain in her calves drooping down and getting in the way of her steps.
Foodie Beauty. Now, this may be an old photo of her because she's been using a lot of filters lately so it's hard to tell what she really looks like, but as you can see, her calves and forearms are roughly a normal size, but her upper arms, thighs, and torso are wildly out of proportion. Her upper back has so much fat accumulated that her head looks like it is positioned weirdly.
These two women are roughly the same weight but their body shapes are very different. How do you size that as a clothing designer? Chantal carries her weight in her torso while Amber Lynn carries hers in her legs a lot. In both of their outfits you can see how the clothes have a hard time fitting, Chantal has a lot of loose fabric by her calves because her thighs are much bigger but the shoulder area of her shirt looks rather tight. Amber Lynn's pants look stretched to a breaking point, especially around her calves and ankles.
The fact is, in obese people, clothing is going to be hard, because fat distribution is no longer normal as it is for people sized XS-XL. And this can go the opposite way for people who are dangerously underweight too.
This is Eugenia Cooney, a severely anorexic YouTuber. Similarly to Amber Lynn Reid, there is no noticable difference between her calves and her thighs but for the opposite reason. The waistline of her pants are holding on for dear life because she has no waistline or bum, the chest area of her shirt if very baggy because she has no noticable breasts anymore. She has starved herself into no longer looking like a normal human and as sick, normal clothing doesn't fit her anymore.
When you maintain an unhealthy lifestyle, whether you eat in excess or restrict to excess, there will be consequences. One of which being, you will have a harder time finding clothes. Now, I sympathize that for a lot of these women, there is an eating disorder involved that contributed to their unhealthy relationship with food, HOWEVER, they are all adults. And as adults, they have the power to go and get help for their disorders and are choosing not to and that is on them.
yeah what they said
And they'll still wonder why plus-sized clothing consists of shapeless, stretchy garments.
