Old Navy Clothing Company Discontinuing its Plus Size Department

There has a been a rumor floating around the Internet for a few weeks now that has a bunch of curvy ladies in a depressed funk: Old Navy stores are phasing out their in-store plus sizes and replacing their allocated floor space with a maternity department.

Old Navy is an offshoot of The Gap Companies (also parent to Banana Republic) and expanded their plus size line back in 2004. Hoping to capitalize on the younger, trendier set, Old Navy stores introduced their fun affordable fashions in sizes up to 26. With the average American woman wearing a size 14 and one-third of all American women wearing a size 16 or larger, this seemed like a win-win situation for all involved: stores made more profit on a previously limited market and plus size consumers were able to buy trendier clothing at a decent price.

This new development of only carrying their plus size clothing on the Internet has quite a few shoppers disappointed and angry. Although Internet shopping is huge business, most of us take for granted that we can shop for our clothing needs in an actual store if we choose. What if your favorite retailer suddenly decided that they were no longer going to carry size 8s, mediums, or men's 36 waist pants? Would you quietly retreat to your computer to shop or would you be amazed and ticked-off? Size tags don't mean as much as they used to--some manufacturers run small and some run generous, it just depends on the maker. When I used to work retail, it was common that cheaper brands of clothing ran smaller and higher quality, more expensive clothing fit truer to size. Now it's almost impossible to predict how something will fit without trying it on. There is a huge gap (no pun intended) in sizes nowadays and it's common practice for designers to purposely relabel clothing in a smaller size to make us psychologically happier: "I'm a size 6 now! I used to be an 8!" The only things getting smaller are our wallets.

Cruising some women's online forums I read some interesting opinions, like, "So, Old Navy would rather sell clothes to a woman who will only be a bigger size for 9 months? What about the rest of the ladies who will be a size 16 or higher for the rest of our lives?" So many women wrote the same thing in various ways: we're good enough to buy your clothes on the Internet but not important enough to have a section in your retail stores. It's tough enough to find clothes in bigger sizes that are fashionable (does anyone really want a closet full of diagonal stripes and neck bows?) and affordable (sorry, Marina Rinaldi doesn't fit into my budget)--why make it harder?

A couple years ago, a popular department store phased out their petite sizes section and alienated a portion of it's loyal shoppers. There was a loud backlash against these higher end stores for downsizing what was already a limited selection for the smaller-proportioned customer and because of the protests, some stores reintroduced the line. Business is business: you carry what makes you money. Will the plus sizes at Old Navy make a comeback after they've driven off their plus size population? Or is the decision symptomatic of what appears to be an "Invisible-ing" of the customer: if you're a plus size, you don't count.