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A fuss about plus Fashion designers are finally focusing on fine clothing for women wearing larger sizes
July 31, 2001 By DIANE PETERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
One of designer Peggy Lutz's regular customers is a businesswoman from Texas who used to wear Hermes scarves and Chanel handbags with $25 slacks from Sears.
Then Carlene Gonzales discovered Lutz's plus-size Web site, and the horse breeder was able to upgrade her wardrobe to match her elegant accessories.
Where to find it
•Peggy Lutz Plus Inc.
Owner: Peggy Lutz
Web site: www.plus-size.com
Address: 7650 Bell Road, Windsor, 95492
Phone: 837-1897
Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday
•Making It Big Specialty Store & Discount Outlet
Owner: Cynthia Riggs
Web site: makingitbigonline.com
Address: 135 Southwest Blvd., Rohnert Park, 94928
Phone: 795-6861
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
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"We just did a gold silk outfit for her to wear when she sells her horses," said Lutz, who has operated Peggy Lutz Plus Inc. out of the Windsor Business Park for the past 2 years.
Although Lutz started making plus-size fashions 15 years ago, it's only been in the past few years that big-name designers have begun to recognize that, despite America's obsession with weight, 50 percent of women are size 14 or over.
"It's about time," said Cindy Thomas, store manager of Making It Big, a local company that manufactures plus-size fashions in Cotati and sells them through a retail store in Rohnert Park and through mail-order.
"I think Oprah changed everybody's mind about larger gals," said Thomas. "She always dressed fabulously and looked all pulled together. It's people like her who have drawn national attention to the fact that big gals like clothes, too. We don't want to walk around in tents."
In 2000, women spent more than $17 billion on clothing sizes 16 and up, a 22 percent jump over the previous year, according to the New York-based NPD Group, a marketing-research firm.
According to Thomas, that trend reflects the fact that women of all shapes and sizes have moved out of the home and into the workplace.
"How many women do you know can afford to stay home?" she asked. "You can't wear a muumuu to work ... Plus women are working in all kinds of new fields -- doctors, lawyers, managers -- and they can afford better clothes."
Fashion and style director Debbie Palan of MODE, a beauty and fashion magazine for full-figured women, has spent her career pushing the fashion industry to re-examine prejudices about larger women.
"The original misassumption about everybody who was heavy was that they were poor. It was also assumed you'd never have a larger woman with her sleeveless arm hanging out," Palan said. "But with 50 percent of our population wearing size 14 and up, this demographic really spans economics, race and age."
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Marybeth Williams, a Santa Rosa resident and signature model for Peggy
Lutz Plus Inc., wears Lutz's drape label coat in copper slither fabric over a
long, stretch slip dress in copper wire fabric. (Press Democrat photo by Mary Gardella)
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According to Palan, Liz Claiborne was the first designer to lend her name to a full-figure line, launching Elisabeth in the late 1980s.
Tommy Hilfiger is the latest designer making a foray into the plus-size arena. Earlier this year, Hilfiger's "Woman" line began filling hangers alongside clothing by the likes of Ralph Lauren, Anne Klein, Jones New York and Oscar de la Renta -- all designers in the "better" price range who have spun their "missy" lines into plus sizes in recent years.
Though choices are greater than ever, plus-size clothing still lags behind missy sizes when it comes to selection, Palan said.
A case in point: There's not a single designer creating couture fashion -- the priciest of designer clothing -- in size 14 and up, she said.
That's the niche Lutz has sought to fill, offering luxurious fabrics like cut velvets, silk, embroidered mesh and faux furs in elegant styles that women can't find in department stores.
"We've always done career wear," she said. "But since last year, we have gotten into special occasion, mother-of-the-bride lines."
Among Lutz's worldwide clients are budding opera singers and countesses, corporate CEOs and real estate agents.
"With this Web site, I can attract the echelon of client who can pay the prices for the clothes," she said. "Little guys have to do exclusivity."
Lutz has even designed a set of wardrobe essentials for "diva on the road" Patti Andress of Tuck-and-Patti fame, who is both a client and a model.
"They're stretchy velvet with faux furs, and they don't wrinkle," she said. "Knits are perfect for plus-size ladies, who have larger, soft bodies. My theory is that softer clothes look better on soft bodies."
A few years ago, Lutz was asked to design a wedding gown for a plus wedding on the Roseanne Barr show.
More recently, she designed a batik outfit for Kathy Bates to wear in the upcoming film "About Schmidt," a comedy also starring Jack Nicholson.
She also created a dress for "Curve," an upbeat film about the plus-size modeling world starring Kathy Najimy. The film is being shot in New York and touted as "Unzipped" meets "Charlie's Angels."
"The more plus-size women there are on TV and in the movies, the more it will be accepted," said Lutz. "The media is incredibly powerful that way."
Along with Oprah and Roseanne, Rosie O'Donnell has vaulted larger women into the public eye. Camryn Manheim of ABC's "The Practice" dedicated her 1996 Emmy award "to all the fat girls," while talk-show host Queen Latifah has become a spokeswoman and model for Lane Bryant, one of the oldest specialty stores for plus-size women.
Some plus-size actresses and models have even started to market their own lines of clothing. Delta Burke of NBC's "DAG" recently launched her own line for JC Penny and Mervyn's California, and Emme, a size-16 supermodel who was twice named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine, has added "fashion designer" to her list of credentials.
"I was having a problem finding sportswear with a hip edge to it," said Emme in a phone interview from New Jersey. "When you can't find clothes that reflect your personality, it's frustrating to feel you have to look like the second sister or a matronly mother."
Lutz herself worked as a stage actress and a costumer for almost 20 years before she turned practical and bought a serger sewing machine at the age of 39.
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Marybeth Williams of Santa Rosa wears a bias-drape gown of silver slither
with a long stroller coat in silver and blue Japanes cutwork from Peggy Lutz
Plus Inc. (Press Democrat photo by Mary Gardella)
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She fell into plus-size design by "pure serendipity," after meeting a couple of women at a birthday party who ordered some clothing for a plus-size store they planned to open.
The store didn't materialize, but that first order of clothing set Lutz permanently on track in the voluptuous, curvaceous world of full-figured women.
After selling her clothes to pioneer plus-size stores like Abundance in San Francisco, Lutz opened the Plus Size Designer Outlet in Sebastopol.
Five years later, she discovered the Internet and realized she wanted to be on the Web in order to "serve the whole world."
Clients along the way have helped her upgrade her fabrics by investing in her business and helping her refine her Web site.
Most customers discover Peggy Lutz Plus Inc. on the Web, then call in to order fabric swatches that will pinpoint their taste, color preferences and climate needs. Lutz then counsels them online or on the telephone to help them find what they're looking for.
"My average client is short, but with a shape," she said. "She wants clothes that look right on her body type."
Most of the styles in Lutz's evening-couture line are simple and elegant, like embroidered mesh kimono jackets over slinky slip dresses. For a more precise fit, Lutz has developed a special digitized pattern system in conjunction with her pattern maker Charlotte Bird of Petaluma.
Fitting plus sizes can be difficult, Lutz said, since body sizes and shapes vary wildly in the larger sizes. Lutz takes the standard bust, waist and hip measurements plus extra measurements like upper-arm and outseam from the waist down.
"Even the big guys like Oscar de la Renta have nightmares about fitting," said Lutz. "The larger the women get, the more various their body sizes. This is the trick."
Lutz's showroom, which is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m Thursday through Saturday, ripples with a rainbow of vivid colors, from fuchsia to sapphire.
"My client is hungry for color," she said. "When she goes into a store, she chooses something in black or blue, so when she comes to me with her heart in her hand, she wants something colorful, like purple or emerald green."
Lutz offers eight sizes, ranging from xx-small (size 12 to 14) to xxx-large, for those with an 80-inch hip. Most of the styles adhere to Lutz's mantra: "Fits the bust, skims the waist and flows over the hips."
Prices range from $69 for a sleeveless top to $80 for a pair of pants and $159 for a dress. Her bridal and evening wear is priced from $400 to $800.
Her best-selling dress is the Juliet, a flowing style with a sweetheart neckline that can be dressed up for evening, or dressed down for work.
"Versatility is real important," she said. "My clients travel a lot and give presentations before thousands of people."
Besides Lutz, the backbone of the operation is seamstress Lourdes Maldonado, who works in the production room behind the showroom, cutting all of the fabric and doing most of the sewing.
As part of her expansion plans, Lutz is gearing up to open a cyberstore next year, where customers can buy simple dresses, caftans and one-of-a-kind outfits right off the online rack.
While acknowledging that beauty ultimately comes from the inside, Lutz views her apparel service as a way of helping big women feel more beautiful.
"By making them feel beautiful," she added. "You make them look beautiful."
Since 1984, Making It Big in Rohnert Park has offered plus-size and super-size women a line of casual and business clothing that is relatively affordable -- $40 to $68 for tops, $48 to $56 for pants, and about $75 for dresses.
The company's niche is natural fibers. Every item that it carries is made from either cotton, linen, rayon, or a blend.
"Polyester isn't healthy for your body, and it's not good for the environment," said store manager Cindy Thomas. "And there are a lot of people who are allergic to polyester."
Along with natural fabrics, Making It Big boasts a unique sizing system, with just four sizes ranging from Size 1 to Size 4. To help fill the need for clothing between sizes 14 to 16, the company also offers a few styles from other plus-size designers like Amanda Gray, Fenini and Flax.
At its only retail store in Rohnert Park, Making it Big offers a good selection of the catalog clothing, plus a discount center offering last year's styles.
"I have customers who come to the store from all over the U.S., England, Australia, Hawaii and Puerto Rico," said Thomas. "They always tell you they are a catalog customer, and you often recognize the clothes when they walk in."
One of the benefits of shopping at the bricks-and-mortar store is the extra service -- a refreshing change from being hidden away in the far-flung corners of "big girl" stores or department-store basements.
"Being a plus person myself, and having shopped in these stores since I was a teen-ager, I want to make sure our customers get good customer service," said Thomas.
She likes the company's Epic line of washable rayon. "I wear the clothes all the time," she said. "Rayon goes to work well."
Unlike the mainstream plus-size market, Making It Big has always used plus-size models in its catalog.
"One of the most common compliments we get is that women are so happy to see someone who looks like them wearing the clothes," said owner Cynthia Riggs. "And all of our pricing is the same, whether you're ordering smaller sizes or bigger sizes. We don't want people to feel bad that they're bigger."
You can reach staff writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or e-mail dpeterson@pressdemocrat.com. This report contains information from the Seattle Times.
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