From the beginning of television, women have been pigeon holed to obtain a certain look and women had an unrealistic goal of being stick thin with perfect hair and a flawless face. This stereotypical portrayal of women is not only out of touch, but unobtainable. Lane Bryant, founded in 1900 in New York, was the first women's apparel retailer that catered exclusively to plus-sized women (Solomon, 2011). Typically, plus-sized clothing was low end merchandise, not fashionable, using cheap fabrics, and options were limited. Lane Bryant transformed the industry be creating stylish clothing for the average woman, considering 62 percent of women in America are size 14 and up (Solomon, 2011).

What Lane Bryant has been able to do is show the world that plus-size is acceptable and all women deserve fashionable, high quality products. Now, they have branched out, stepping into the lingerie arena, creating competition with Victoria's Secret. Not only does a plus-size person desire stylish clothes, but they need sexy lingerie as well. The plus-size women’s clothing market achieved $17.5 billion in sales in the year ending in April 2014, an increase of five percent over the previous year (Cinelli & Yang, 2016). Lane Bryant appears to be changing the way society perceives the typical woman and how to typical woman perceives themself. …show more content…
However, attitudes about body image have slowly begun to change. Yet, plus-size women still spend less of their disposable income on clothing (Solomon, 2011). In the last few years, great strides have been made in making women of all shapes and sizes feel beautiful. The recent trend of using plus-size models in advertisements has enabled marketers to appeal to a growing segment of the market (Cinelli & Yang,