Two Cornell apparel design sophomores, Brandon Wen and Laura Zwanziger, have designed a plus-size dress form after noticing the scarcity and inaccuracy of full-figured mannequins.
This is coincidentally in light of recent negative statements made by Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, who “doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store.”
Wen and Zwanziger’s form is allegedly more accurate than any other plus-size form, according to the Huffington Post.
The pair originally set out only to design a clothing line for plus-size women after they discovered how overlooked the plus-size demographic is in the fashion world. They soon realized that a realistic plus-size dress form did not exist.
“A lot of the clothes [for plus-size women] are really just sized up from smaller proportions, which fit really strangely,” Zwanziger said. “Plus-size women feel alienated from the fashion industry.”
The two students analyzed thousands of 3-D body scans of women to develop a prototype body size and shape for their fuller mannequin, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Their market research demonstrated that plus-size women hold 28 percent of purchasing power of clothing and accessories, but that their spending adds up to only 17 percent of such purchases.
“Each person deserves to have clothing designed for them as they are, not as they relate to some abstract industry shape,” said Zwanziger.