While the average woman is not a size 0, the average runway model is, and most designer labels stop carrying sizes for women at around size 12. The average American woman is a size 14, ABC News reports, and high-end designers are finally starting to cater to them.
Popular brands like Abercrombie & Fitch don't sell extra-large sizes for women, but the trend is starting to change as fuller-figured women demand more variety in their clothing options.
"I think there has been a common misconception both socially and in the fashion industry that that block of women are those sizes don't really care about fashion, but that couldn't be further from the truth," Lori Bergamotto, contributing style editor of Lucky magazine, told ABC News.
Designers like Calvin Klein, Michael Kors and Vince Camuto are now creating styles for plus-size women, and companies of all sizes are finding the plus-size market to be a lucrative one.
"In the end of the day, the fashion industry is a business and they were seeing where a lot of those profits were going," Bergamotto said. "Twenty percent of our revenue is from women who are over a size 12 and it is finally like, 'Ding. Let's get going.'"
Paula Faris of ABC News recently took a trip to Bloomingdale's with plus-size fashion blogger, Alissa Wilson, to check out the growing selection of fashion for fuller-figured women.
"If you are going to make us something stylish, nice and it fits us, we're going to buy it," Wilson said. "Finally no more moo moos. No more basic black. We want the same thing that we see on the runway."
One hundred brands were represented at the recent Full Figured Fashion Week in New York, a stark contrast to the only 12 brands making an appearance in 2009.
Click here to see ABC New's report on designers embracing plus-size fashion.
