Tim Gunn Calls the Lack of Plus-Size Clothing Options 'Repugnant'

I’m pretty sure that if I ever met Tim Gunn my tear ducts would start blasting like two tiny firehoses and wouldn’t stop until the pair of us had to swim out the window clinging to ethereal chiffon flotsam. Then Tim Gunn would become my NEW DAD and we’d travel the land scolding internet trolls and eating cheddar bay biscuits and snapping photos for each other’s #OOTD posts. I’m like 90% positive that’s what would happen.

And the thing is, I already felt that way about T.G. before I read this blistering interview with him about the dearth of designers willing to service plus-size customers, so now that I’ve read it I’m basically bedridden with joy. Gunn has always been a voice of compassion and reason during the Project Runway “real woman” challenges—which are essentially hour-long fat-shaming jamborees—and now he’s made it clear that he’s got our back(fat) IRL too.

Via HuffPo:

“When I’m working in the real world with real women and we’re shopping, we find that fashion seems to end when you get any larger than a size 12,” Gunn told The Huffington Post. “How ridiculous is that?”

…”I’ve had my own moments in front of designers when I’ve actually said, ‘You know, there’s a market here for expanding your work, and here it is,'” Gunn told us. “And frankly, there are two markets: The women who are larger than the 12, and then there are women who are petite. And most designers that I talk to have absolutely no interest in addressing either of those populations, which I find repugnant.”

…”Go to Lord & Taylor on Fifth Avenue, I think it’s the eighth floor, and it’s just a department called ‘Woman.’ It’s rather devastating. You’ve never seen such hideous clothes in your entire life. I mean, it’s simply appalling. Thank God there are no windows on that floor, because if I were a size 18, I’d throw myself right out the window [after seeing those clothes]. It’s insulting what these designers do to these women.”

SMELLING SALTS, PLZ. Tim Gunn’s relating-to-fat-ladies game is on point. At the department store where I shop, the “women’s” section is literally in the basement with the furniture. Which gives one the inescapable feeling that YOU ARE BASICALLY A COUCH.

And as I’ve written before, it really is just a shitty business decision to deliberately exclude fat people from your potential customer base. I have money that I’d like to spend. Do you know how much I’d like to be able to buy “investment pieces” instead of overpriced disposable garbage? The market of fashionable, well-made, plus-size clothes is so small that just a handful of companies are raking in every single one of my dollars.