Huffington Magazine Issue 62 | Page 45

TOMOHIRO OHSUMI/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES THE BIG SQUEEZE say, ‘Clearly I can’t shop here.’” Lululemon treats its larger sizes differently because it sells so few of the products compared with its more popular, smaller-size offerings, according to a former store supervisor who spoke to HuffPost on condition she not be named. Size 12 yoga pants were “not displayed normally” in her store and were consigned to a heap in the rear because her store didn’t carry much inventory in that size. It would have looked strange had workers put the few 12s out on the floor with the rest of the sizes, the former supervisor said. HUFFINGTON 08.18.13 “We didn’t want it to look sparse,” she said, adding that the size 12s tend to gather dust. “They just sit in the store and you sell them like once every six months.” In an interview with the Calgary Herald in 2005, Lululemon founder and former chief executive officer Chip Wilson said that it takes 30 percent more fabric to create plus-size clothes, meaning that he would have to charge a higher price for them. That’s something Wilson would never do, he said at the time, because plussize people are sensitive and the company would feel intense fall- Trendy retailers Forever 21 and H&M have started plus-sized lines, but they are exceptions to the rule. Most similar brands carry sizes that favor thinner women.