Brazilian plus-size designers are making fashion apparel for larger-size consumers in defiance of the general trend of the fashion industry to produce apparel for narrow-sized beauties.
Brazilian plus-size designer Amanda Momente founded the plus-size clothing label. The need to produce large-sized apparel was felt because more than half of all adults in Brazil are overweight. There is a growing movement of entrepreneurs, activists, and models who are fed up with a fashion industry they say fails to fit their needs and shames them for their bodies.
The designer complained that society judged her based on one thing, so she took that thing and used it… to launch her own business. She founded her company in 2017. She got the idea after feeling uncomfortable at the gym in clothes she says were too tight, turned transparent when stretched, or bunched up around her thighs.
The newfound designer decided to find a seamstress to help her make her workout outfit. It turned out so well she quit her day job and plunged headfirst into the fashion world. The rise of colorful, stylish clothes for Brazilians with large bodies is part of a broader international trend rejecting unrealistic standards of beauty, especially for women. She asserts that the fashion industry needs to fit our bodies, not the other way around.
The plus-size sector grew in Brazil by more than 75 percent in the decade through 2021, reaching sales of 9.6 billion reais (about $1.9 billion) that year, according to the association. It projects sales will hit 15 billion reais by 2027 in Latin America’s biggest economy. A spokeswoman of the association asserted that fashion is not just about consumption. It’s about identity and dignity.”
TV presenter and plus-size model Letticia Munniz has strutted the runway at glitzy Sao Paulo fashion week, made the cover of glossy magazines, and been the face of numerous ad campaigns. But she says real inclusion remains a long way off for the overweight and obese in Brazil — 57 percent and 23 percent of the adult population, respectively, in the country of 203 million people.
Plus size women fashion brands successfully launched in Brazil
