Nearly a Third of NYFW Designers Have Increased Their Size Range Since Last Season

The Spring/Summer 2020 season of New York Fashion Week has officially come to a close. The event put forth strong statements about immigration, celebrated the queer community, and, at long last, became part of the body-positive revolution. We don’t use the R word lightly, but it feels in order following a week of serious size diversity wins.

After surveying the size charts of every designer listed on the official CFDA schedule for NYFW, we found that nearly one-third of designers, including Cynthia Rowley and Veronica Beard, have increased their size range since last season. While only five designers offered clothing in sizes 22 and above during NYFW Fall/Winter 2019 (shoutout Christian Siriano, Chromat, Tadashi Shoji, John Elliott, and Prabal Gurung), Spring/Summer 2020 more than doubled those numbers, with a full 11 brands producing pieces in at least a 22. Newcomers to this wider size range include Rebecca Minkoff, The Row, and Tommy Hilfiger, the latter of which showed in Paris last season and was therefore not considered in February’s survey.

As always, though, this progress has arrived with a few caveats. Famously inclusive labels Prabal Gurung and Brandon Maxwell appear to have decreased their size range from last season, due in large part to their collaborations with plus-size brands like Lane Bryant and 11 Honoré ceasing production between Fall/Winter 2019 and now. (Christian Siriano almost fell into this category but launched a J.Jill collection on September 12 that goes up to a size 28 — the same range as an 11 Honoré line he put out last season, which is still available but now only stocks up to 26.)

Some brands, including Coach 1941, which upped its largest size from last season’s 14 to its current 18, only produce select pieces in larger sizes. In Coach’s case, it's one tee and one hoodie.

RELATED: Ever Notice How Even Plus-Size Models Have the Same Body Type?

To make matters more complex, the CFDA’s Spring/Summer 2020 calendar featured just 77 designers, while its Fall/Winter 2019 equivalent boasted a full 95. That 18-designer decrease could be partially to blame for the drastic overall improvement in brands’ size ranges, as some of last season’s least inclusive names — like Ji Oh and Moon Choi, both of which capped off at a size 8 — did not reappear on the schedule.

Even so, such drawbacks can’t dim the silver linings of the Spring/Summer 2020 season. Fans of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s The Row saw its largest size jump from a 14 to a 22. Widely-known brands like Rebecca Minkoff eschewed the old guard and rolled out some stunning plus-size looks. Finally, the always-inclusive Chromat, which commemorated its 10th anniversary with a body-positive fashion show for the ages, reminded NYFW-goers what this fashion thing is all about: Whether you wear a size 8 or 28, you’re worthy of feeling beautiful and expressing that beauty as you choose. Here’s everything you need to know about the size ranges of designers at New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2020.

A few things about our survey.

• We only surveyed designers that could be found on the official CFDA calendar here.

• We only included women’s ready-to-wear brands (denim and men’s, for example, were excluded).

• We did not include designers that only create custom clothing or do not sell in retail (like The Blonds).

• Brands that answered us in European sizes were converted to US sizing using this chart.

• For brands that size XS-XXL, we used the following conversion: XS= 0, S=2/4, M=6/8, L=10/12, XL=14/16, XXL=18/20. This was based on the average of the designers’ conversion estimations.

• In the instance that a designer offers extended sizing per request but does not produce it across the majority of their products, we went with the size run they create all pieces in.

Here's how the size offerings break down by brand:

Up to Size 28
Christian Siriano
Chromat
Dennis Basso

Up to Size 24
Rebecca Minkoff
Veronica Beard

Up to Size 22
Cynthia Rowley
Lela Rose
The Row
Tanya Taylor
Tommy Hilfiger
Studio 189

Up to Size 18
Coach 1941
Kate Spade New York
Libertine
Prabal Gurung
Ralph Lauren
Tom Ford

Up to Size 16
Badgley Mischka
Bibhu Mohapatra
Brock Collection
Carolina Herrera
Gabriela Hearst
Marc Jacobs
Marchesa
Michael Kors
Naeem Khan
Oscar de la Renta
Pamella Roland

Up to Size 14
3.1 Phillip Lim
Adam Lippes
alice + olivia
BARRAGáN
BATSHEVA
Brandon Maxwell
Christian Cowan
Christopher John Rogers
Eckhaus Latta
Jason Wu Collection
Longchamp
Nicole Miller
Pyer Moss
Rosie Assoulin
Ryan Roche
Sally LaPointe
Telfar
Tory Burch
Ulla Johnson
Vaquera
Victor Glemaud
Zero + Maria Cornejo

Up to Size 12
Anna Sui
Collina Strada
Helmut Lang
Jonathan Simkhai
Marina Moscone
R13
Sies Marjan
Theory
Tibi
Vera Wang

Up to Size 10
Alejandra Alonso Rojas
Claudia Li
Dion Lee
Jeremy Scott
Khaite
LaQuan Smith
Matthew Adams Dolan
Proenza Schouler
Sandy Liang
Self-Portrait
Zimmermann

Up to Size 8
AREA
Mansur Gavriel
Maryam Nassir Zadeh
Rosetta Getty
Snow Xue Gao

Up to Size 6
Creatures of the Wind