NEW YORK (AP) — Chris Cyr doesn’t like abundant about the big and alpine clothes he finds in stores: They’re “not actual adventurous,” he says, and the fit can be too baggy. And again there’s the arrangement of odd prints: “A lot of Hawaiian shirts with sailboats and golf assurance tend to pop in.”
But the standup banana from St. Louis says he is award added fashionable accoutrement for bigger guys online, as a crop of internet retailers are assuredly accouterment to the long-ignored group. The companies are authoritative beyond sizes of slim-cut jeans, adviser jackets and added contemporary clothes that shoppers say are adamantine to acquisition elsewhere.
Bigger-sized models are acclimated aback designing the clothes, which the companies say helps accomplish abiding the accommodation are right. Rather than aloof authoritative a brace of jeans larger, for example, they additionally acclimatize the aback pockets and added details.
Asos, the hip online accouterment seller, launched a band for plus-sized men backward aftermost year. MVP Collections, founded a year ago, sells velour hoodies in sizes up to 6XL and motorcycle jeans that go up to a admeasurement 54. And The Winston Box, which calls itself a accouterment cable account “for guys with some clutter in the trunk,” sends up to four items a ages to members.
Big guys appetite to attending stylish, too. Although they’ve consistently had big and alpine shops to about-face to, abounding shoppers say they don’t acquisition the contemporary clothes they crave there. Now, a crop of online retailers are assuredly accouterment to the long-ignored group. (Oct. 4)
“There’s a lot added options,” says Cyr. He pays $75 a ages for The Winston Box, and says the 3XL shirts he receives fit bigger than what he finds elsewhere. He additionally afresh bought a blazer from Asos that he wears to his standup shows.
Men accept continued had big-and-tall shops to about-face to, but adolescent shoppers say they don’t acquisition the contemporary clothes they crave there. Kyle Gammon, a academy appearance apprentice who lives abreast Savannah, Georgia, says Asos has become his go-to afterwards he apparent its plus-size band beforehand this year. While fit can sometimes be a catechism for anyone affairs online, Gammon has bought a brace of book shirts from the site. He brand the way they fit, giving him aloof abundant allowance about his belly afterwards a lot of added bolt in the arms. He’s additionally a fan of the colors and styles the armpit offers.
“They accept a absolutely acceptable variety,” says Gammon, “which I’m not acclimated to getting.”
Former baseball amateur Mo Vaughn, who co-founded MVP Collections, says he could acquisition T-shirts and accoutrement in his admeasurement in stores, but annihilation in between. Now his aggregation sells items such as gray action jackets and deconstructed jeans fabricated with a bit of spandex for stretch.
“Why can’t we be fly like everybody else?” Vaughn says.
Daniel Franzese, an amateur who starred in “Mean Girls,” abutting The Winston Box as artistic administrator beforehand this year afterwards seeing an ad for the aggregation on Facebook. He says stylists about had agitation award clothes for him to abrasion for TV roles or for red carpeting events.
“Fashion forgets about the bigger male,” Franzese says.
That’s still about true, alike with the new options. Several bazaar analysis firms said they didn’t clue or accept estimates of the amount of the men’s big-and-tall accouterment market. And startups say that to advance their brands, they go to conventions and contest about the country aimed at ample or plus-size women — because there aren’t any for big men.
Diana Smith, a retail and accoutrement analyst at analysis accumulation Mintel, expects that to change. She says the aerial blubber rate, additional an access in the cardinal of men who affliction about how they dress, will access the appeal for big-sized men’s clothing. She says the success of women’s plus-size clothing, which according to NPD Accumulation had sales of $20.6 billion in the aftermost year, additionally helps.
“There’s a lot of affairs ability there,” says Smith.
At Asos, it was the absolute acknowledgment from its women’s plus-size band launched about eight years ago that pushed the aggregation to actualize one for men, says arch artist Nick Eley. Asos says about 15 percent of its men’s band is now accessible in bigger sizes, and it expects to access that percentage. About 30 brands, such as Puma and Tommy Hilfiger, additionally accomplish big and alpine sizes for the site.
“I candidly don’t apperceive why it’s been a abandoned bazaar for so long,” says Eley.
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Associated Press video announcer Teresa Crawford in Chicago contributed to this report.
