Wildfang’s most recent lookbook stars five kickass “retirement age” folks lookin’ so fine in suits and tees. From a librarian to performers to business people, Glenda, Skeeter, Gongyi, Wendy, and Kuniko are perfect examples of why age ain’t nothin’ but a number. Let’s hear it for more lookbooks that don’t rely on normative casting.
Lydia Okello is a feminist, body positive, queer personal style blogger. On her website Style is Style, she showcases her panache for bright colors and power clashing. When she isn't pawing over Samantha Pleet collections on Tumblr, she's dreaming about havin' a kitten of her own one day. You can find her on Twitter, Tumblr and on her personal blog.
Lydia has written 64 articles for us.
It’s not even noon and I got my entire life with these photos!
The photos make me want to hang out with those women.
I LOVE THIS SO HARD
the jagger pants! aaaaaaaahhhhh
YES!
BOW DOWN
Yes, this is great. They don’t rely on normative casting. Just so long as you’re skinny.
I’ve heard great things about Wildfang since they first started, and it is really nice to start seeing clothes for people who aren’t gender conforming. But if they really want to be groundbreaking for the fashion world, then they shouldn’t stick to the size limits on their clothes that the rest of fashion does. Even Ellen’s new stuff is only for skinny people. It’s a bit depressing for us plump, non gender conforming gals.
From a business perspective, though, it’s not about malice against larger folks. It’s about the range of stock they can manufacture and the range of stock they can expect to sell. So if they believe (whether or not that’s true!) that they can sell more clothes in the XS-XL size range than the XXL-XXXXL size range, that’s where they’re going to focus.
Having worked in companies that did their own manufacturing, I’ve learned that tooling isn’t cheap and logistics are a bitch.
You also can only go up/down a limited number of sizes from one pattern (my sister works in the clothing biz so I’ve heard a lot about this). That’s a big reason for the straight/plus size divide. If you want to offer down to XS, you start at the biggest size that you can grade down to that (medium-ish) and go up as big as you can. Then if you want to offer plus sizes, you re-draw the pattern for someone in the middle of the plus size range, and scale up/down from that. Basically scaling (“grading” is the technical term) is both a science and an art that can be done by a computer but has to be checked by a human. It’s kind of expensive and you can only go so far before the pattern starts to get too distorted and you have to start fresh with a pattern that’s designed for a closer size. Grading is still a lot cheaper than having to design the whole pattern again, which is why a lot of companies end up not offering plus sizes and also why there are specialist plus size brands. Basically it costs almost twice as much to develop a clothing item in two different size ranges.
More than a bit depressing for me. Would be happy to spend money with them too.
I’ve sent them an email to that effect, be interesting to see if I get a response.
my grandma is the most important person in my life. she doesn’t have internet but when i go visit her i’m gonna show her this link. i think she’ll like it, so thanks for the article!
Wow, I love that you share that kind of relationship with your family!
Ahhhhh, I just love this collection. What’s more is that there’s FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING for orders over $200!!
Oh reaaaaaaaally!
This is adorable. And super cool.