Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling (21 page)

On the other hand, fledgling plus-size retailers often rely on a local consumer base to work as hired models, and usually these models are reimbursed for their time in either cash or merchandise. This is the case with Plus Size Plum Lingerie, a web-based retail site of “sexy plus size lingerie for big, beautiful, women who radiate humor, style and intelligence.” Founded by former plus-size model, Deborah Friedman, Plus Size Plum Lingerie offers a collection of intimate apparel that will “enhance the beautiful plum in all of us.” Due to its location in Durham, North Carolina, Plus Size Plum Lingerie has limited access to plus-size models. Consequently, the owner, Deborah Friedman, and her husband scout for women to model on their website at local restaurants and shopping centers.

Similar to boutiques that scout from among their customers to model in in-store fashion shows, some retailers invite customers to submit their
photos for consideration through an online submission process. Hips and Curves, for example, scouts for models for upcoming photo shoots through its website. An exclusive web-based business, Hips and Curves caters to curvy women, offering its exclusively plus-size clientele the latest in lingerie since operations began in 2000. Owner Rebecca Jennings encourages her consumers to submit their pictures (one close-up and one full body shot) via email or mail. Prospective models must be women who wear at least a size twelve, “
love
wearing sexy lingerie” [emphasis theirs], and live in Southern California, where its administrative offices and call center are located. Hips and Curves prefers to use local models for ease of availability in the case of last-minute photo shoots.

Whether using professional plus-size models or women off of the street, all plus-size lingerie retailers seek to use models whom their customers can both identify with and aspire to, as well as capture the look of the clothes. Above all, the models embody brand aesthetics. When Jennings, from Hips and Curves, requires her models “
love
wearing sexy lingerie,” she is not simply scouting on the sole basis of physical appearance. She looks for women who fit her brand image in terms of their energy, i.e., affective labor. Jennings wants models who would be interested in her clothes even outside of the context of the job. Similarly, during a casting for an independent, web-based plus-size collection, the designer team asked me if I had examined their offerings on their website before the meeting and, if I had, which article of clothing was my favorite. They were asking these questions to gauge my enthusiasm for a product I would be selling if hired for the job. This was their way of determining if I would be able to embody their brand aesthetics to become their brand’s ambassador. Selecting a model for an advertising campaign or catalog is not simply a matter of who looks the best. It is a highly subjective process that involves discerning the worker’s potential to embody an organization’s values—its image—through her look, mannerisms, voice, and style.

Additionally, the types of bodies used in these images are of growing concern to the consumer. More of the newer, web-based retailers have begun using “larger” plus-size models. For instance, the models on the
Plus Size Plum website come in a wider range of sizes than nationally franchised clothing retailers. As owner Deborah Friedman explained in a personal correspondence:

I prefer to use size sixteen models so my customers can identify with them. I’ve had complaints in the past that our models didn’t look plus-size enough. I actually used a size twenty-two for some pictures.

Competing with national retailers who do not use models larger than a size sixteen, these newer brands do not want to risk alienating consumers. Similarly, Luscious Plus Lingerie stresses its use of a variety of plus-size bodies to potential customers on its website, “As you explore the site you will be able to relate to the ladies in media photos, product photos, which further illustrates our dedication to luscious women :-)”
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The website prominently features “larger” plus-size models on its homepage.

Hiring “smaller” plus-size models may alienate consumers, who may perceive it as a mismatch between a brand’s aesthetics and the models’ bodies. As sociologist Kjerstin Gruys discovered during her ethnographic research at a plus-size clothing store, customers are sensitive to the size of bodies, even the size of store employees. At a store she initially described as “an oasis of body acceptance,” most of the employees were plus size; however, some, like Gruys who wore a size ten, were standard size.
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While working at the store as an employee, Gruys overheard a customer request to speak with a manager:

The woman said, “Well, that’s just it . . . you might not understand. I haven’t been in here for a while, so maybe something changed, but isn’t this supposed to be a store for big ladies? All of the girls working here are small. Didn’t they used to be bigger?” . . . The woman looked upset, and asked “but isn’t this a store for bigger girls?” . . . The customer left the store without looking at anything, saying, “I’ll come back another day, but I hope it’s back to normal by then.”
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Web-based retailers, such as Luscious Plus Lingerie seen here, tend to use larger plus-size models than nationally franchised brands.

As Gruys notes, this customer expected to see plus-size workers at a plus-size store. When her expectations were not met, she left the store without making a purchase. Similarly, Friedman, from Plus Size Plum, feared for her business after a similar reaction from customers, so she rectified her mistake. By using larger models on its websites, online-only brands like Plus Size Plum and Luscious Plus Lingerie seek to appeal to a more diverse range of women by using models of various sizes (while brands with physical retail space use larger sales associates as well). These models are curvier and rounder than those who typically appear in print for national retailers. The owners of these online boutiques aim to show their products on “real” bodies.

In the past two decades, plus-size retail expanded, offering more brands, larger sizes, and utilizing plus-size models with increased girth.
With the growth of e-commerce, plus-size designers reached a larger pool of consumers via the Internet with greater ease. Independent labels and boutique owners rely on online sales to increase profit margins and expand their business nationwide. While designers hire thin models to promote their fashion and appeal to a targeted young and thin demographic, online fashion catalogs tend to feature models of size sixteen through size twenty-four to appeal to a larger clientele. The arguably “larger” plus-size model, shunned by certain sectors of the fashion industry, gains visibility in a burgeoning virtual marketplace.

The aims of plus-size lingerie retailers are not different from other general lingerie retailers, such as Victoria’s Secret, except that they cater to a specific niche market based on size. Marketing lingerie involves highlighting an idealized femininity, one that is characteristically thin. While sexuality is implicit for thin models, plus-size models present a more explicit sexuality in order to counter the stigma of asexuality. To do so, marketing efforts place greater emphasis on an overt sexuality.

Intimate apparel accentuates rounded breasts and hips and intensifies the wearer’s femininity. Flesh is exposed; the normally hidden is placed on full, prominent display. The wearer cannot hide behind her shapewear. So, in order to attract fat women, retailers present a retooled image of a fat body. The plus-size women presented by these lingerie retailers idealize the stigma of fat by exposing that which the cultural discourse tries to make invisible. Plus-size lingerie retailers expose the woman’s body to reveal her flesh and sensual curves, presenting a new image of a fat woman embracing her body. These images expose the flesh and show plus-size models proudly flaunting their fat amid a cultural discourse that seeks to cover it in shame. This new image entices fat women to shed the layers of shame and timidity that formed under the pressure of a stigma.

This body-accepting branding serves as a beauty counter-discourse. For example, marketing campaigns infuse a seductive sensuality and overt
sexuality into their presentations. Consumers are presented with a sensual image of the fat woman, as evidenced in Avenue Body’s “Sexy Nights” campaign, “Own the night in our collection of seductive lingerie that will help you to flirt with desire and romance the mysterious.”
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These models smile with their eyes while curling their lips as if they have a secret to share with the consumer. They lean against a backdrop, emphasizing their curves. Similarly, Hips and Curves “celebrates the beauty and sensuality of fuller figures” and offers something on its website “for every seductress.”
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In a lacy bra and panty set, a model reclines on a windowsill, running her fingers through her hair. With pursed lips, she soaks in the sun’s rays. We, the consumer, furtively look into this private moment of seduction.

The serious sensuality of these models contrasts with the mirth and levity of those used in Cacique advertisements. Counter to the idea that larger women should wear black and other dark colors to camouflage their size and shape, plus-size lingerie comes in a variety of colors. Instead of hiding, women are encouraged to call attention to their more ample features with bright colors. In one Cacique advertising campaign, women are urged to “get sexy and playful” and to “color their curves,” as one model wears a blue tank top with “sassy” written across the chest and another model poses flirtatiously with her back to the camera to reveal “aloha” written on the backside of her panty. The message is that fat women can be playful and sensual like any other woman of any size without being too risqué. These models laugh, smile, and flirtatiously beckon the consumer with a pout of the lip. They do not cover up their bodies. They flaunt them.

According to advertising campaigns such as these, fat women can be playful and flirtatious, be sensual and seductive, and engage in sexual role-play. Plus-size lingerie retailers offer an array of corsets, bustiers, costumes, and other fantasy items. For the daring woman, corsets are not a thing of the past, according to Hips and Curves:

Today’s femme fatales have ditched the whalebones of the 1400s in favor of softly cinching plus size corsets and plus size bustiers that celebrate their curves while offering support and style. Channel your Marilyn Monroe and show off your hourglass figure in an über sexy plus size bustier, plus size corset or merry widow.
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An advertisement for Hips and Curves that utilizes seductive sensuality to sell lingerie to plus-size women.

This Cacique advertisement, “Color Your Curves,” stresses the playful and flirtatious side of plus-size women.

With a corset or costume, a woman can unleash her inner sexpot and enter the realm of fantasy.

Offering a selection of lingerie sets, a variety of bras and panties, baby-dolls, nightgowns, bustiers, chemises, and body stockings, plus-size lingerie retailers seek to supply women with intimate garments that fit and flatter the larger body. Curvy Couture, for example, focuses on the fit of its lingerie: