I always thought that Europe and UK were much better at serving the high end plus size customer but that opinion definitely took a ding upon learning that Selfridges recently stopped carrying plus sizes.
For those of you who do not know: Selfridges and Harrod’s are the Saks 5th Avenue and Neiman Marcus of the UK and about 2 weeks ago they quietly stopped carrying plus sizes and it is just now being reported on as people have caught on to what is happening.
It’s always so much fun to hear the various excuses given for dropping plus sizes or cutting down on the floor space devoted to plus size apparel.
According to what one Size 22 customer was told: “they want to change their image”.
Okay, that’s INSANE. Do you know any stylish woman (with the possible exception of Anna Wintour) who would deem a department store unfit for their upscale tastes simply because they carried plus sizes? Do you know any woman who wouldn’t buy a certain label because the label also had a plus size line? NONSENSE.
I find this especially puzzling due to the recent success of Anna Scholz – you don’t get more “hip” than Anna Scholz and while Scholz herself is German she is based out of the UK!
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My fondest desire (which will NEVER HAPPEN) is that every department store manager and buyer be limited for one year to only buying designers that also have a plus size line AND they can only purchase those designers in stores that actually carry the plus size line. Then maybe, just maybe they’d have a clue as to how difficult it is for the plus size shopper.
