Despite challenges from the industry, Black designers and influencers have been at the forefront of building a more diverse and inclusive future of fashion.
This story is part of Black Ensemble, a series celebrating Black leaders, innovators, and trendsetters in the fashion industry.
Like many teens, Kim and Keyondra Lockett just wanted to be stylish. But as young women with fuller figures, the only brands that offered clothes their size were Lane Byrant and Ashley Stewart — hardly the stuff most 16-year-olds wanted to wear.
So the sisters got creative. They enlisted the help of their mom to transform their dad's old pants into mini skirts and button-ups into cropped tees. Years later, the Locketts harnessed their eye for style with their own size-inclusive fashion brand, Jolie Noire, which offers sizes up to 6X.
"Knowing the struggle we've had and knowing that fashion hasn't moved forward enough, it's always been our dream to be able to walk into any store and see the plus-size section near the straight sizes," Kim told Insider. "We want people to be able to choose what they wear because we understand how limiting choices can be as both Black women and plus-size women."
The Lockett sisters are part of a growing wave of Black designers who are advancing size inclusivity in fashion. The industry has long seen roadblocks: Although an estimated 68% of American women wear a size 14 or above, only 8% of brands offer plus-size options. A 2018 analysis of 25 of the largest multi-brand retailers like Shopbop, Macy's, and Net-a-Porter found that just 2.3% of their women's apparel is plus-size.
Despite the market for extended-size clothing, which is valued at over $178 billion, some brands have cut their plus-size offerings. In 2021, Loft announced it was discontinuing plus sizes due to "ongoing business challenges," provoking frustration from its customers.
But Black designers are undeterred.
"As sure as there's going to be trends, you're always going to have the plus-size community — and they're going to want clothes," Keyondra said. "People will always want fashion-forward clothing, and that's where Black designers like us come in."
A history of fatphobia rooted in racism
The lack of size inclusivity stems from a long-standing bias against fatness in Western cultures. The history of fatphobia can be traced back to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, according to Sabrina Strings, sociologist and author of "Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia."
During the Renaissance, fuller figures were deemed beautiful, as captured by the voluptuous bodies in paintings by artists like Titian. But explorers and colonists who traveled to Africa claimed they saw "dramatic feats of eating and women, in particular, who were fat," Strings said. These unfounded claims gave rise not only to the idea that Black skin should be demonized, but also to the association between Black femininity and gluttonous fatness.
"What they 'realized' in the middle of this race-making was that there was a clear difference between Europeans who were supposedly disciplined and capable of self-management and therefore capable of governing the entire world," Strings told Insider. "And the 'inferior' races — and especially Black persons who supposedly had no self-control — were barely above four-legged animals and therefore indeed required someone to manage their lives vis-a-vis slavery."
Fashion has been implicated in fatphobia from the start, Strings said. Early fashion magazines evinced a preference for slimness, and some claimed that there was no such thing as fashion for the fat.
"The fashion industry has long maintained a size bias, and in the early years, they used scientific racism — that is, Anglo-Saxon women are 'naturally' thin — and notions of Protestant temperance to justify their positions," Strings said.
How Black designers are stepping up
The fashion industry has taken steps toward size diversity in recent years, and Black designers are at the helm of this expansion. Part of their success comes from understanding and embracing different beauty standards.
"In the Black community, we praise the butt, the hips, the boobs, the overall curvy shape. It was so refreshing in the early days to start seeing Black designers like Baby Phat and Roc-a-Fella introduce clothing that fit women who had fat on their bodies," Stephanie Yeboah, a body image advocate and content creator, told Insider.
Newer brands led by Black designers like Lizzo's Yitty and Jolie Noire continue to further size inclusivity — an effortless extension of a culture that celebrates curves.
"Sometimes curves are trendy, sometimes they're not. But whenever we as Black designers work on a line, it's already in our psyche, that we need to shape our style lines in a certain way," Kara Lacayo, head designer of Yitty, said, describing how she uses darts and pleats to make fabric mold to a body's curves.
Modern designers of plus-size clothing also acknowledge that even within a specific size, there are variations in body shapes. Yitty, for example, considers these in their designs by using a 6X model that is more bottom heavy, as well as one that is more top heavy, according to Lacayo.
Other designers, like A'Shontay Hubbard, have opted for made-to-order clothing, an approach that benefits customization and sustainability efforts.
"I don't have the same money that Gucci has behind my marketing and advertising to guarantee that the 1,000 pieces I design will sell out when I drop the collection," Hubbard, who owns the bespoke fashion brand Christian Omeshun, said. "For us, made-to-order is about sustainable fashion, but it's also about understanding that every woman is not made the same."
Challenges from the industry
Despite their efforts, designers looking to make fun, appealing clothes for plus-size women continue to face pushback from the rest of the industry.
Lacayo said the biggest misconception she's constantly heard is that extended sizes can't be too sexy or have certain prints, like stripes, and colors that are too bold.
"Why wouldn't a larger customer want to wear a hot, bold pink, or an all-over animal print?" Lacayo said. "Sometimes extended sizes don't get all the options that smaller sizes do."
The sentiment is reflected in other parts of the fashion production chain. The print partners that Jolie Noire works with to create their printed graphic tees, for instance, don't offer everything in all sizes.
"A huge challenge for us is having to advocate with our print partners and sharing how important it is to offer pieces that go up to 6X," Kim said. "Then they have to go to their vendors to advocate and so on down the chain."
Another common refrain is that larger sizes are more expensive to produce, but Anifa Mvuemba, founder of the luxury clothing brand Hanifa, disagrees, especially given the untapped opportunities of the $178 billion market for plus-size clothing.
"In reality, I think it's all the same. It's just about who you're thinking about as you're creating the pieces," Mvuemba told Insider.
The future of size-inclusive fashion
The Black designers Insider spoke with remain optimistic about the future of size-inclusive fashion, but they also know there's still a ways to go.
"The size inclusion conversation has been going on for some time. But when I shop, I still struggle when I pick a filter for a size 14 or 16, and there's nothing," Mvuemba said.
Yeboah said she continues to have the same experience.
"As long as there's a cut-off point for sizes, it's not true inclusivity," she said, describing how she can only shop online because many brick-and-mortar stores have cut extended-sizing options.
That's where designers of brands like Jolie Noire, Yitty, Christian Omeshun, and Hanifa come into play, filling the void and attracting a loyal customer base that's been largely ignored by mainstream stores.
"We can't have true representation if we're not having diverse bodies behind the scenes who can bring their perspectives to the board," Yeboah said. "If we can get to a point where we have the opportunity for plus-size people, disabled people, and people from marginalized backgrounds to make the decisions, I think we'll be able to see a much more diverse and truly inclusive future."