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Body positivity has been in fashion for a while now, with more and more images of different body types promoting the clothes we buy. But whether you’re shopping on the high street or browsing online, when was the last time you saw menswear introduced to a gym-worthy non-workout?
On TikTok, a small group of plus-size influencers are trying to make menswear more inclusive. They are using the platforms to call out different size options and even break the idea of what menswear is.
“It was a huge eye-opening moment for the fashion world for plus size women’s clothing… that we need to be more open, we need to be more creative with clothes no matter what your body shape is,” said Nikhil Kapoor. Plus-size influencer.
But it hasn’t changed to include menswear.
Kapoor is a graduate student in law and science at Northwestern Law School in the United States. And between classes, he is the creator of a clothing line called ‘Posh Heat’ and a TikTok account with over 226k followers.
Both aim to “represent plus-size menswear and plus-size clothing in general” and show examples of how people can be creative with fashion and work around certain options.
Most of Kapoor’s videos focus on recreating the looks he’s seen dating on people with slim bodies.
In one Tiki Toks, ‘Plus Men’s Fashion Pinterest*inspo It won’t come out’, Kapoor first shows the audience a model’s image on Pinterest and then recreates it in his apartment.
In some of them, he films himself taking viewers into the store while he’s at the market. And in others, he creates clothes for certain events such as the school orientation, a night out or a nice dinner.
But in almost all of his videos, there’s a general idea that he and the audience can wear whatever clothes they can easily find in stores.
“[Menswear in stores usually go] Up to one more, extra-large. And if you’re looking for anything beyond that, three X or four X or five X, you’re pretty screwed at that point because you don’t have a lot of options,” Kapoor told EuroNews Culture.
He also added that there are limited “beautiful” options in the menswear plus-size department.
Instead, it goes straight to the women’s clothing plus size section and the “special sale section” when you shop in person.
“It’s practically impossible to shop for your clothes, and if you’re looking for formal clothing needs, you’re forced to go to the plus-size women’s clothing department.”
He says he buys 90% of the clothes in his closet from the womenswear section.
The plus-size fashion market is growing, and experts predict it will jump from an estimate of 461 billion euros in 2019 to 669 billion euros in 2027, according to Allied Market Research.
However, according to Jacqueline Windsor, a specialist in the retail fashion industry for PwC, the womenswear market for plus-size fashion is bigger than the menswear market.
Because the womenswear market is generally bigger than the menswear market and it’s not just a “plus-size phenomenon”.
“In the overall apparel market, the womenswear segment is bigger than the menswear segment,” she said.
“I would argue the same is true for plus-size, but there are many reasons for that. For example, women tend to have higher purchase frequency per year than men.
“So there will never be equal representation on the high street. Having said that, I think the men’s market is under-tapped.
The consequence of that imbalance is that there aren’t many options in the menswear department for people like Kapoor.
And he’s not the only one using TikTok to talk about this issue or make menswear more inclusive.
Like Kapoor, Meena Gergus is a Canadian influencer who focuses much of her content on the plus-size movement and fashion.
“Shopping as a plus-size person is always a very difficult task because you go into the mall and there are very few sizes offered for larger men, and then the sizes that are available are usually ugly clothes like plain t-shirts. Everything is clear,” Gerges told EuroNews Culture. He said.
“And if you’re like me and like to try new things and dress a little spicy, you stay in the dark.”
Gergus has been talking about plus-size fashion for almost a decade. In the year In 2015, while still a student, he posted a series of photos on Instagram replicating the look of pop divas.
He has since become a member of the first plus-size pit crew of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a widely successful show where drag queens compete for cash prizes.
On the show, the pit crew help skits and the models on set are mostly topless. The show was on TV for eleven years before Mina joined the cast as the first plus size pit crew.
“I think it was one of the most important moments in my career [Canada’s Drag Race],” he said.
“I remember walking into the gym and being surrounded by 30 guys who were all very thin and they were more muscular than me… I was the only one with a different body type than everyone else. It just got me in over my head in that moment.
“I think as men we have such a limited idea of what it means to be confident in your body. Unless you’re very muscular and have a six-pack, you’re not allowed to be confident in your skin.”
“And I think that’s a very harmful thought. And I’ve been working hard to redefine that … I love my body. I feel confident in it. And I don’t need a six-pack to feel that confident.”
Gergus is also on Tik Tok where he talks about plus size menswear. In two of his videos, he recreated costumes and clothes that he thought were cute but couldn’t get in size.
In one of his recent videos, he recreated Kim Kardashian’s famous Balenciaga caution tape look with a corset and average caution tape.
In another, he painted the same image over a pair of white pants to create a pair of pants printed with an image of a Greek statue.
In others, he makes his own plus-size clothing.
There is a very different type of community on TikTok compared to Instagram. I understand that there is such a large community of people like you on Tik Tok, who are trying to figure things out and want confidence and look to you for advice on things.
“The community on Instagram is so diverse. You’re going to be proud of what you do on Instagram.”
And like Kapoor, he shops in both menswear and womenswear departments.
“I think my advice to someone who wants to shop in the menswear department but can’t find the right clothes is to expand your idea of what clothes and menswear are.”
“I think I’ve learned that clothes are just clothes. It doesn’t matter whether you buy it from the menswear or womenswear department.
According to Windsor, this dynamic is beginning to be seen in the wider apparel market. And many young people are shopping across the gender divide in stores, blurring the idea of what is and isn’t menswear or womenswear.
“I think, especially with millennials, Generation Z, Generation Alpha, it’s a little more fluid between what people identify with and what they wear,” Windsor said.
“I was talking to a high-end fashion menswear collector. And they found that 20 percent of their consumer sites are women buying menswear.
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