Why It Took So Long for Designers to Understand Plus-Size Brides

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When Who What Wear's associate features editor Ana Escalante got engaged, there were a lot of things swirling around in her head. One of those topics was figuring out what she was going to wear on her wedding day.

"As I began this process, which is very personal and very intimate, I found myself so frustrated by the lack of options. I think that the wedding industry, especially if you're plus-size, has a way of making you feel so small," Escalante said. This lack of options sparked a story idea digging into why it took so long for designers to understand the plus-size bride.

"When I kind of began talking and reaching out to other plus-size brides or other plus-size content creators who had recently gotten engaged, I kind of felt that there was this one section of the market that was missing when it came to plus-size bridal," Escalante said.

For the latest episode of The Who What Wear Podcast, Escalante shares how the story came together, the criteria she had for designers she met with, and more.

For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.

Can you tell us a little bit about what inspired this story and why you wanted to write it?

Obviously, when I got engaged, there were so many things swirling in my head. Perhaps the most funny of those things was like, "What am I going to wear?" That was always kind of top of mind when I got engaged. As I began this process, which is very personal and very intimate, I found myself so frustrated by the lack of options.

I think that the wedding industry, especially if you're plus-size, has a way of making you feel so small. I think it's almost something that a lot of plus-size fashion people have desensitized about the ready-to-wear industry. We know that a lot of the clothes that we see on the runway aren't gonna come in our size, but you know, for the one wedding dress that we're excited to wear or the dress that we've dreamed about for years, you would think that perhaps that is another facet of the industry that might be somewhat inclusive, but in fact, I found it was very much the opposite.

The story kind of came about from this very personal need. When I kind of began talking and reaching out to other plus-size brides or other plus-size content creators who had recently gotten engaged, I kind of felt that there was this one section of the market that was missing when it came to plus-size bridal. There are so many mass market stores out there that are serving a ton of women in America, whose inventory is really vast when it comes to different sizes. That was one option that a lot of us have.

The other option that we have is to befriend designers or shell out tens of thousands of dollars on a custom-made gown. That's not financially lucrative at all for a lot of us. I felt like there was this sort of, like, demi couture piece that was missing in the bridal industry. I wanted to figure out why that was missing, if there were any designers who were catering to that kind of bride who had a little bit more of an elevated eye or a little bit of a healthier budget, and if they are in the market, where's the marketing behind that? That's kind of how it began.

What were your first steps in tackling this dress journey and the story, specifically, because it already sounds quite overwhelming?

It was a process that I think, in total, was about two months of reporting and going into different bridal boutiques. Even before I reached out to you guys about doing this story, I had already gotten to a handful of appointments and been like, "Wow, there's a lot to unpack here." Before I kind of got really, really deep into the process, I wanted to talk to Alysia Cole, who is this plus-size bridal stylist and content creator. A lot of the content that she does really, again, came about from this personal need and this personal frustration when she was getting engaged back in 2015 due to a lack of samples and the lack of styles available for plus-size brides.

I'm curious what were some of your favorite boutiques that you felt did this really well in terms of your appointment experiences?

When it came to featuring designers who were going to be in the piece, I had a very stringent list of requirements that they had to meet. One of those was that I had to sit down with a designer and interview them, and ask why they are making certain decisions on their sizing. Another part of featuring the designers who were in the piece, I needed to go into the showrooms and actually physically try on the samples.

I could sit down with the designer, and they could be like, "We're working on having a plus-size sample, and we have plus-size brides in the past, but our biggest sample is a size six." That's not gonna work for me. So had to throw them out, as well. Because of that, the two designers that really fit that bill were Alexander Grecco and Jenny Yoo. I cannot say enough how incredibly special and memorable those conversations and experiences were.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.