American retailers are reducing their range of plus-size women\u2019s clothing. H&M has stopped including 3XL and 4XL sizes in new collections in the US, citing lower demand; Mango and Anthropologie have also scaled back their ranges. Analysts partly attribute this shift to the growing popularity of GLP-1 medications, although second-hand market data points to sustained demand for plus-size items.<\/p>\n
Briefly about the main points<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2023, H&M in the US expanded its women\u2019s size range from XL to 4XL and enlisted a model and activist Tess Holliday<\/strong> as a consultant on size inclusivity. Three years later, these changes had disappeared from the new collections.<\/p>\n The research firm Edited compared new women\u2019s dresses that appeared on the H&M website between January and May 2025 with those from the same period in 2026. Last year, 3XL and 4XL accounted for 2% of new items, whereas this year they did not appear at all. The proportion of XXL sizes fell by 3 percentage points, and XL by 2 points, whilst sizes from XS to L increased by an average of 3 points.<\/p>\n In a statement to The Guardian, H&M said it constantly monitors demand for fits and sizes and has decided to stop offering 3XL and 4XL due to lower demand.<\/p>\n According to Edited, Mango has reduced the proportion of new dresses in sizes 16\u201320 from 6.6% in its Spring\/Summer 2025 range to 0.5% in the 2026 season. At Anthropologie, an analysis of dresses sold in July revealed a year-on-year reduction in plus-size offerings from 10.5% to 9%.<\/p>\n The scaling back of plus-size ranges has happened before: Loft discontinued its plus-size range in 2021, whilst Old Navy reduced its range in 2022. Last year, Torrid, a chain specialising in plus-size clothing, closed 151 shops \u2014 almost a third of its locations.<\/p>\n\n
H&M has scaled back the expansion of its size range<\/h2>\n
The job cuts have also affected other retail chains<\/h2>\n
GLP-1 is changing the size structure of demand<\/h2>\n