Larger Women and Men
Plus-size clothing has always existed, but the more body-positive movement of today was arguably non-existent in mail-order catalogs of the last century. In these Sears catalogs, plus-size women were often referred to as “stout” or just “larger” than the average woman. Many garments in the catalogs would not be made in sizes that fit women above a 40-inch waist (though, the average women’s waist size then was smaller than it is today) and often the most “trendy” fashions would be reserved for misses and average women’s sizes. The styles available specifically for bigger women tended to be more conservative and were marketed as slimming or slenderizing. The models for the larger women’s garments rarely appeared to be above the average size. Interestingly, clothing for larger men wasn’t as heavily focused on hiding pounds. Plus-size men were referred to as “huskies” and the models for these garments appeared to be of a larger size, suggesting that these sizes were more acceptable and widely available for purchase.
