Drill down into the figures, though, and the reasons for the abandonment of plus-sized shoppers by mainstream fashion brands are more complex. Even in the GLP-1 era, after all, the majority of Americans are still plus-sized, including those who have lost weight on GLP-1s. The latest research suggests that most GLP1 users lose between 10% and 20% of their body weight; last year Jack Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, estimated that 66% of US women still wear size 14 or above, which most brands classify as plus-sized. Even now – and despite all evidence to the contrary in visual culture – plus-sized shoppers are fashion’s vastly underserved majority.
[...] The narrative around Ozempic, [Apostolou] argues, is an excuse for fashion brands to cut back and not have to think about plus sizes. “They’ve been using every excuse that they possibly could think of for years now – ‘oh well, people aren’t shopping’ – when they’re offering the ugliest, most hideous styles ever.”