Keeping a sharp eye out in the news for all things Big & Tall, I ran across this Huffington Post article reporting about a recent editorial in Fantastic Man.

With the recent, if not now-forgotten, fury over a few Plus-Size female models gracing the pages of Glamour and other magazines, this is a development that I wasn’t sure that I’d see happen.  There’s much to like here, but I’d like to know the height and weight stats on these “Plus-Size Male Models” to see just how “Plus Size” they are.

Nonetheless, some of the models and the examples they are modeling are pretty good.  I see an example here for most walks of life, but only really one “size”, which happens to be the “over-thirty everyman”.

Reading the article and seeing that big & tall men are now being portrayed in a more fashionable and positive light is nice, however the reality is that the men portrayed here are most likely barely XXL at best.  They probably have a sub-40″ waistline and are most likely able to find clothes in the average store… and maybe the occasional trip to the JC Penney’s big and tall section.

And before jumping to conclusions, not all big and tall men are grossly overweight, either.  Sometimes we are little more than the average man plus 30 or 40% in overall weight, height, shoulder measurement, inseam and just about everything else.

If you ever pick up a catalog for a big & tall retailer, they tend to go with men that are most definitely larger than the normal guy, but they are almost always athletic or at least have a somewhat defined upper-body.  Perhaps the “aging college football player look” best defines their appearance, which isn’t necessarily representative of the entire segment, just like the male models linked above.

It seems that the effort is forward progress, which is a good thing, but we’ve got a bit further to go with this to make it a little more useful.  A more realistic approach of how a big & tall man can dress would be helpful, and models who are a bit more average would probably sell the “look”, and the clothing to go with it, a lot more convincingly.  Frequently I’ll be scanning the catalog pages or big & tall retailer websites and see a look that I think would be great… but can I pull it off?  Show us someone who looks like us.  Show us we can, and we will buy.

Categories: Apparel / Clothing, Big & Tall News
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