Fit for all: Fashion industry urged to think big with inclusive sizing

Big changes are coming to sizes in traditionally feminine fashion.

But for many people with larger bodies, those changes aren't coming fast enough.

The Edmonton founder of Unbelts is a fashion-industry trailblazer who set out to make comfortable clothing for people of all body types with the company's stretchy, size-inclusive belts.  

"[I wanted] to make a belt that would fit. Not just fit, but fit comfortably and feel good for every single person in my family," said Unbelts founder Claire Theaker-Brown.  

"And so that meant that I needed to make sure that it covered a fairly wide size range."

Brands like Adidas and Old Navy have started offering larger, more inclusive sizes. But Theaker-Brown said it can be difficult to adapt pieces while staying true to the original design.

Unbelts, for example, didn't just add more material.

A belt designed for a larger waist just didn't work for smaller people, Theaker-Brown said. So the company created two different sizes of their belts, which fit waist sizes ranging from 20 to 60 inches.

"You cannot make a one-size-fits-and-works-well-for-all solution," she said. 

"It doesn't exist."

There's a stigma around catering to larger body sizes, according to Anne Bissonnette, a dress historian and associate professor in the University of Alberta's human ecology department. 

Bissonnette, whose research includes studies of how clothes and the body interact, says many manufacturers still base their measurements on a sample size from the late 1930s.

"When I was in fashion school … we were told how to size garments starting from a size 8 and then add a specific measurement that was equal every time you change sizes," she said.

However, bodies change as a person gains or loses weight, meaning clothes may fit or hang differently on different body types, Bissonnette added.