Fashionable Fat Guys Are Waddling Into Mainstream Looks
Having come a long way from the days of providing floral-print ponchos and dress capes to men who could single-handedly fill clown cars [see picture], the Big & Tall fashion industry now struggles to narrow it’s target market and sartorial bearing. It’s an issue near and dear to my heart. As a robust man of six and a half feet who, weighing almost two PeterWKnoxs at my peak - I’ve never quite ballooned into the traditional minimum B&T waist-band: a stretchtastic 46”. Yet I have muffin-topped a few 36’s in my day. That occasionally left me in the no-man’s land between department store and B&T.
I am, however, tall enough to indulge in extra-long shirts at various B&Ts and became familiar with the odd dynamic of marketing button-up tents: the catalogues are stuffed with images of modern Adonis in long, athletic tapered Nautica board shorts. The average guy in the store, on the other hand, is unwittingly making a corset from the 4XL vest of a George Foreman brand, Carolina blue suit. Either that, or he’s triumphantly flexing in a vaguely misogynistic Big Dogs t-shirt [see below].
The trend is on, led by Casual Male XL, to change the waist of B&T. For starters, Casual Male no longer uses the phrase “Big & Tall”, having learned men translate it “fat guys in stretch pants.” They’re focusing on more athletic-looking bruisers in the 40-48” range, like appropriately surnamed Pats’ offensive tackle Matt Light. Finally, they’ve continued to improve the look of their product, especially in smaller sizes. The hope is attention to relatively more fit, but still authentically large, men will grow the market. My hope is that said market growth will lead to more varied, stylish options in case I experience another post-pubescent burst of … non-market growth. WSJ analysis of this here.