I’m surprised you say at a size 30 you’re able to buy things from more M&B and online stores. I’m a size 30 and I find it nearly impossible to find clothes that fit me. And usually even if they do fit, they don’t fit well. I’m jealous, where is it you shop?

I don’t think you should write them off just yet. As you said, they’re a small operation. At least they’re trying to provide cute, fashionable items for us fatties in the world.

Screw them. Fucknecks can’t treat us like human beings they can fucking well go to hell. Personally had just about enough of fashion industry bullshit.

I like the first shirt, and I love the color. Anything in the purple family will end up in my closet.

As someone who is a 26/28 but usually goes up to 30/32 if I know the cut and fabric will be tight, I totally get the frustration women who are a 3X and up have with trying to find clothes without having to resort to online all the time. And let me tell you, stores that refuse to carry extended sizes for whatever reason are stupid and doing a total disservice. I was in Lancaster Sunday outlet shopping with my mom, a 14/16, and my aunt, an 18/20. I went to Lane Bryant Outlet and Dress Barn. Naturally, the size 26/28’s and 22/24 (which is what I can wear in certain Dress Barn items and the largest they go up to) are the first sizes to go, leaving tons of 14/16s and 18/20s all over the place. My local Fashion Bug can barely keep 26/28 and 30/32 in stock. So there is a demand for extended plus sizes.

“Supersize” gals like to spend money too. They want to be stylish just like their inbetween counterparts. Retailers who don’t feel like catering to us are missing out on a great opportunity to make money and promote FAES—Fashion At Every Size.

That green top is fabulous + they ship internationally = gigantic credit card debt for me. Oh dear.

I agree with OTM that writing a letter or email would be the best course of action. If B&Lu get enough customer feedback saying they want the larger sizes, this is a company small enough to need that customer base, so they are more likely to listen and do something about said feedback.

A letter writing campaign *along with orders for the larger sizes* would probably be the most effective thing possible. That shows that a) the market is there and b) the market will support the company if they provide the clothes.

I think writing them a letter is a good idea. I would also add that I haven’t been impressed with B&Lu’s quality lately – I have some of their older stuff, which I love, but I sent back all the newer stuff I ordered from them recently because the fabric felt cheap and it just didn’t look good when I tried it on. I wonder if nuckingfutz is right and they did change manufacturers – the quality decline seemed to happen at the same time as the size shrinking. I also wonder if those few items that do come up to size 30 are also better quality… I do like this dress

Warning: longest comment in the world ahead.

Do I support their efforts to continue carrying larger plus sizes? Or do I write them off as a retailer because it is just way too frustrating to deal with YET ANOTHER STORE that has phased out my size or never carried it to begin with?

Dude, I hear that. And it looks like you’ve already solved your dilemma with exactly the advice I was going to give: Buy it, and write a letter telling them you will buy more if they carry your size.

I know from talking to one plus-size boutique owner that she got rid of everything above a 24, because it just wasn’t selling, and her operation is too small for her to hang on to inventory that won’t move. I find that incredibly frustrating — and I’m sure the handful of people above size 24 who used to shop there find it a million times more frustrating. But I can totally understand that if certain sizes generally don’t sell, a small business owner can’t necessarily stand on principle and keep them around.

However, that’s a local operation with no online presence, so she’s relying on fatties in a single market — and there really might not be that many women who are 24+, into fashion, and can pay her prices there. B&Lu, however, can draw customers from all over, so it’s just a matter of getting the word out that they have shit up to a size 30. (Which means I will probably go blog about this myself.)

My gut says that if they stock the clothes and aggressively market themselves as a store that carries larger sizes, the business will come. There is almost nobody else offering fun, funky clothes up to a 30 — and literally nobody offering fun, funky clothes (in my opinion, anyway) OVER a 30/32, except for those who do custom work. (And arguably some Zaftique stuff, I guess.) There’s an almost completely untapped market there, and if I had the money and time, I would so be starting my own online plus-size store. In the meantime, I would love to see stores like B&Lu have a little more faith in the 26+ market and really make an effort to reach out to it. My 32/34 sister is fairly conservative, definitely no fatshionista, and wouldn’t be into most B&Lu stuff anyway — but even she is like, “I AM SO FUCKING SICK OF JUNONIA.” (And we lovelovelove Junonia, mind you. It’s just, that’s pretty much her ONLY option, because the other stores that offer her size — and yeah, she’s heard/thought of all of them — really don’t appeal to her.) Between her and my friends/readers, I feel like the larger plus market is a potential goldmine, but so few people are actively courting it with both respect and good product.

Anyway, back to B&Lu, I think nuckingfutz is also correct that they’ve recently changed suppliers. (Didn’t Lesley write about that?) A lot of their stuff has been looking crappier to me lately, and I recognize some of it as the same stuff going on e-bay/smaller online stores, which apparently comes from some big, cheap-ass plus-size wholesaler. It might be that they couldn’t get larger sizes from that supplier — but I think carrying cheaper shit is a lousy business decision anyway. Maybe it’s all they can afford, given the economy, but if I were queen of B&Lu and had no restrictions, I’d have slightly raised prices on nicer stuff instead of dropping the quality and keeping prices consistent. Strictly from a business standpoint (meaning I’m well aware that there are loads of people for whom their current prices are a major splurge, and I don’t personally want to fuck those people over), I always felt B&Lu was slightly underpriced for what they could have gotten away with — until the quality went down. I’ve seen their shit marked WAY up in boutiques, and once I even paid the mark-up — knowing I could go home and get it for $25 less on the website — ’cause I loved that skirt so much and it was well-made, and I also like to support fatty boutiques. I fully believe that back in the day when their stuff was nice, they could have priced everything at least 10-15% higher and sold it — but their prices have always been in limbo between cheap and spendy, so it was unclear what market they were even going for. And now they’re trying to sell a lot of cheap-looking crap at not-so-cheap prices, which… no.

So. In this case, given B&Lu’s past efforts to carry up to a 30, showcase larger models, and treat customers well, I think the appropriate response is to get the word out about their larger sizes and encourage people to buy them and/or send letters saying they want more — and p.s., better quality again, please. If they’re not responsive to that, then maybe it becomes one more store to avoid because they just don’t care about the larger market. (Of course, “responsive” can mean a lot of things. If they’re sincere in their desire and efforts to serve that market, but it just never comes to them, I couldn’t really fault them for axing bigger sizes. Small business, yadda yadda.) But right now, anyway, I like to think they’re not a lost cause, and a little positive attention could be much more powerful than encouraging a boycott — not to mention it could actually get us what we want, which is a store we like and respect that offers a wide selection of stuff up to 30.

Um, yeah. I should really just go blog about this.

I have had good luck returning with B and Lu for a shirt without room for the “girls” … I say trying and returning is always an option… I do like to support small business.. I Used to get great coupons from an online fashion magazine called Skorch for them.. whatever happened to that venture? It seems as the US gets bigger and bigger that these companies should be booming.

I’d say buy it. If they get no one buying, they will stop selling those sizes all together. This is, unfortunately, capitalist think.

Well, y’know, I purposefully refused to buy anything from B&Lu after I noticed – with the last couple of updates they’d done – that they seemed to be phasing out my sizes (I’m a 26/28 on top and a 5x/6x on bottom – stupid stomach! grumble). I’d purchased this glorious, perfect violet-colored thermal t-shirt from them last season and it still is one of my most favorite pieces of clothing. After finding it there, I kept checking back, hoping to find something I’d love just as much and then that’s when I noticed the number of items in my sizes very gradually shrinking, bit by bit.

I emailed them and expressed my concerns and got a canned email back, saying that the manufacturer they bought from just didn’t have all the cute stuff they wanted to get for the store in my size, but that they’d be adding items in my size soon.

So I waited. And waited. And waited. Then, I noticed that they added the ‘new 5x styles coming soon!’ thing to their masthead and that reassurance (without any new 5x stuff available, that I could see, amongst the new arrivals) was enough for me to cease my little personal boycot and break down and buy myself a skirt they had on sale. With a 25% off coupon and s&h, it came to $18. I’ve become a skirt whore, I’ll admit it, and I’d been itching to get something new to add to my wardrobe and that seemed to sate me, a little. The quality’s not bad, considering what I paid for it, but I certainly wouldn’t pay full price for it.

Anyway, that said – when I got an email newsletter letting me know B&Lu had new stuff in stock, I immediately high-tailed it over there and anxiously started poring over the page of new junk they’d added. There were PLENTY of cute things that I would have loved to have bought, but none of the damn things were in my size! NOT A ONE! I could have just cried, and that’s not hyperbole. I don’t remember the last time I felt so disappointed and let down. The four or five pieces that actually come in my size just aren’t my style – I love the first purple blouse you linked to, but I know it would look horrible on me – so even if they did add a few 5x items, I didn’t wanna buy a single one of them.

So I went and I unsubcribbed from the B&Lu newsletter and wrote exactly why I was doing it, “I don’t see the point of getting updates through your newsletter about all of the new stuff you’ve got for sale when I can’t even WEAR 95% of it – I give up on you guys”. For me, it’s not a matter of liking a particular cut or having a preference, as might be the case with smaller women. I *have to have* those sizes, otherwise it just won’t work.

And, so, yeah, I do see the point some people are trying to make, that we should support the shops like B&Lu that do have cute stuff in some plus sizes, but… that’s not much consolation for someone like me, who’d bought stuff from them in the past in their *extended* sizes only to now be disappointed over and over again by their broken promises.

Even if they came out with a whole page full of 5x stuff, I won’t be buying from them again. Like with everything else, I tend to hold grudges, and this is no different. I’m just tired of getting my hopes up, only for them to be dashed again, and I refuse to let a company dick me around that way – telling me ‘oh, there’ll be 5x stuff in the next update!’ only for it to be seriously freaking ugly, overpriced crap I wouldn’t use for a dishrag, much less ever wear. What good does it do me if they have 5x in this stuff, if it’s nothing I’d ever be caught dead in? Seriously!

I’d explain to them, that I’ve been a supporter of their brand for a long time. That claiming to offer plus sizes and then not provide plus size clothing, or only provide the bare minimum of plus size clothing is false advertising. I’d also explain I would no longer be a customers of their’s unless they backed up their claims. I might also remind them that they are a fledgeling store, and they need to listen and respect their customers by not making false claims if they want to go anywhere.

The mustard yellow does suit olive-skinned people (like my girlfriend, not that she can fit into their reduced size range either!)

I have written to them expressing my annoyance that the garments cut small are only stocked in the smaller sizes, and the lack of variety for 4x and 5x.

criss, that article was really interesting. i actually wish everyone would follow argentina’s lead and have legally established clothes sizing… it would be SO much easier to shop!
btw, i’ve been to argentina, where i struggle to fit into Large clothes (and it’s almost impossible to find XL clothes), and recently i travelled to the US where a Medium was usually too big for me, and i even could comfortably fit into some Small tshirts! it’s a crazy world.

I almost bought those exact two tops last night, but like you took a long pause. I told myself I’d sleep on it and now that I’m online again at home I’m thinking my dollars will stay in my bank for now. I love those tops, but I am unsure of the fit. I have several B & Lu items from the past…since this whole non4x and 5x deal…I’m done. I will say that I once received someone else’s order along with mine and their customer service was beyond excellent.

I wrote this as a comment over @ SP, but it ended up being a blogpost. It details the nitty gritty about all the little nut & bolts, cogs & sprockets that bring clothes from fiber to retailer and why retailers sometimes make the choices that they do.

http://maydarling.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/why-clothes-cost-so-muchor-so-little/