'Plus size' fashion advances in Brazil, challenging prejudices

“I transformed what society judged so much into intelligence for the company I have today,” this 34-year-old entrepreneur, who founded the Wondersize brand in 2017, tells AFP.

The idea came about when she felt uncomfortable at the gym: the clothes she bought to exercise in stores were too tight, transparent when stretched or bunched up on her thighs.

The solution was to create her own clothes with a seamstress, and the result ended up leading her to abandon her job as a real estate agent and start a career in fashion, says Momente, with a pink mohawk and hair shaved on the sides.

Modern and colorful fashion for people with large bodies is part of an international trend that challenges beauty standards that are far from reality, especially for women.

In Brazil, small business owners, influencers and models with unconventional bodies are consolidating this 'body positive' movement, driving the expansion of the 'plus size' fashion market.

“Producing fashion for fat people is not advocating obesity, it is giving them options and possibilities to get where they want,” says Momente, whose clothes are sold online and at specialized fairs.

The Brazilian population, of 203 million inhabitants, has 57,25% of people over 18 years of age overweight, and 22,5% of them are obese, according to the latest official records.

“Identity and dignity”

While big brands reserve at most a small part of their offer for plus sizes, smaller companies are betting on meeting a “pent-up” demand, says Marcela Liz, president of the Associação Brasil Plus Size (ABPS), which represents entrepreneurs and small and medium companies.

This sector grew by more than 75% in a decade until 2021, when it reached revenues of around 9,6 billion reais, according to ABPS estimates.

“The supply has improved, but we still need to grow a lot, we are still below demand. The expectation is to grow to 15 billion [reais] in revenue by 2027”, highlights Liz.

At the Pop Plus plus-size fair, held this month in São Paulo, dozens of women and men explore racks of second-hand items and items from independent designers.

There are transparent blouses, printed t-shirts, shiny skirts and other models in sizes up to 70 (the equivalent of 164 cm hips).

“The market understood fat people as people with no taste in fashion and who just wanted to hide their body”, says Flávia Durante, activist and founder of the fair, which organizes several editions a year.

Since the first edition, in 2012, “there has been an evolution: before there was only clothes and not fashion. Fashion is not just vanity and consumption, but also identity and even dignity”, says Durante.

Definitive inclusion

Letticia Munniz, a 33-year-old television presenter and plus size model, participated in several editions of Fashion Week in São Paulo, was on the cover of magazines and did several advertising campaigns.

But she demands definitive inclusion from the fashion industry, without setbacks.

“At the same time that our work has strengthened, it enters a place of quota. We are still not placed side by side with other people as equals”, says the influencer and activist.

According to Munniz, who often wears custom-made clothes, the occasional presence of plus sizes on the runway does not guarantee their availability in stores.

With brown hair and eyes, she shines on social media, encouraging her more than a million followers to value themselves.

“Everything changes when you find something that was designed to enhance a body like yours – and not to hide it”, he says in a publication, along with his photo on the cover of a magazine.

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