Spy and Bridesmaids actress Melissa McCarthy is asking the fashion industry to drop the phrase 'plus-size'.
'Women come in all sizes,' she told Refinery29. 'Seventy percent of women in the United States are a size 14 or above, and that’s technically ‘plus-size,’ so you’re taking your biggest category of people and telling them, ‘You’re not really worthy.’ I find that very strange.'
'I also find it very bad business,' she continued. 'It doesn’t make a lot of sense numbers-wise. It’s like, if you open a restaurant and you say, ‘We’re primarily gonna serve people that don’t eat.’ It’s like, what? You would be nuts. Yet, people do it with clothing lines all the time, and no one seems to have a problem with it. I just don’t get why we always have to group everything into a good or bad, right or wrong category. I just think, if you’re going to make women’s clothing, make women’s clothing.'
McCarthy's comments come alongside the launch of her own clothing line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7. Featuring fun prints (a top with a cat doodle by her daughter), pockets a-plenty (she's a huge fan), and a range of jeans designed with pure comfort in mind, the collection will be available in US sizes 4-28.
Speaking about the 'plus-size' term, she also expressed dislike for the way shops are laid out, with plus-sizes getting their own – for want of a better term – naughty corner.
'I don’t like the segregated plus section,' she said. 'You’re saying: 'You don’t get what everybody else gets. You have to go shop up by the tire section.' I have a couple of very big retailers that I think are going to help me chip away at that in a very meaningful way, and I'm really excited about it. I’m not ready to announce them yet, but they agreed to just put me on the floor. I said, 'Run the sizes as I make them and let friends go shopping with their friends. Stop segregating women.' And they said, ‘Okay.'
Here's hoping the trend takes on, and retailers the world over get rid of their 'plus', 'tall' and 'petite' sections, once and for all, ending the isolation of women over their perceived size for good.