Lauren
If you search for “curvy jeans” online or you try to find this style for your next pair of jeans, you will see countless options available at stores from J.Crew and New York and Company to American Eagle and Hollister and several other retailers in between.
As popular as this trend is now, this was not always the case. A decade ago, finding the perfect pair of curvy jeans would have posed quite a challenge because many retailers believed incorporating larger or curvy sizes would not align with their brand.
In a 2006 interview, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Michael Jeffries stated, “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids…A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
He also noted that retailers who try to market clothing to all potential customers were boring and missing out on the profitability that comes from making an exclusive brand.
“Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny,” Jeffries added. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”
But times have changed, and there has been a greater demand for clothing brands to create items, like jeans, that fit every body type.
As the body positivity movement has grown, brands like Ambercrombie and Fitch have started to sing a different tune.
Now most brands that sell jeans offer either a curvy line or have expanded their sizes so that their jeans fit people of all different body types.
Within the past few years since Michael Jeffries’ interview was made public, even Abercrombie and Fitch has started offering a line of curvy jeans, and the success of this line (as well as other retailers’ lines of curvy jeans) have shown that his worries about profitability could not have been further from the truth.
As the push for inclusivity continues to increase, many brands are following suit. However, there are still some clothing brands that have not jumped on this body positivity train.
Here are a few brands who have struggled to make the switch to offering inclusive lines like curvy jeans as well as some brands that embraced body positivity before it was “cool” to do so:
Size inclusivity trendsetters:
American Eagle
When it comes to teen retailers, American Eagle set the stage for size inclusivity when it launched its curvy jean collection in early 2019 ahead of rival retailers like Aeropostale and Abercrombie and Fitch.
According to Janine Stitcher, an analyst from Jefferies Financial Group, American Eagle helped lead the charge toward the growing curvy jean trend and is one of the “top searched terms related to ‘curvy jeans.’”
These jeans are available in a variety of sizes and washes, and the success of this collection has caused them to become a leader on the body positivity and size inclusivity front.
A few other brands that are doing this well: Macy’s, Old Navy, Gap, Levi’s
Size inclusivity novices:
Abercrombie and Fitch
While this clothing brand has incorporated curvy jeans for a few years now, it only recently started trying to include more curvy women and other diverse body types in their marketing strategy and advertisements for jeans.
Between this slow movement toward change and repeated concerns over their sizing consistency, Abercrombie and Fitch still has a long way to go before it can call itself a body-positive brand.
Other brands that are just getting started: Aeropostale, Hollister
As time passes, we’re certain that more brands will choose to promote body inclusivity with everything from the fit of their jeans to the models they use for their marketing campaigns.
