JC Penney’s extended plus line needs some better choices
I still remember when JC Penney would never, ever carry a plus item. And nowadays, I’m still surprised by the division in their stores- there’s a section of plus for Gran, and one that could arguably be for you. The St. John’s Bay brand rules supreme at Penney’s, as does whatever on earth that means about their brand positioning (yuppie lite? I dunno.)
Their new extended plus line – from 28-32 – seems to be mostly about shapewear, with a few outer layers thrown in. I can tell you from being in that extended range, I’m beyond the help of a girdle mold. But it’s a cute idea from someone who doesn’t really get what being fat is actually like.
While the outerwear isn’t all bad, some of it is – like these jeans:
To be fair, they do offer these: 
It’s a nice try. It’s an attempt to serve the market – and the market will come, if the offerings improve – and they’re told it’s there.
You know when I was working in the plus size stores we couldn’t keep enough of the “mommy jeans supreme” in stock. It always shocked me how popular they were (and I guess still are). Suggesting an alternative was totally unheard of for them.
I never have and never will resort to these kind of jeans. To me they are what stores think fat people should wear because they are too fat (lazy or whatever) to fit into fashionable clothing which obviously, as we know, is not the case.
You are soooo right. Why do they use skinny thin skinny (did I say skinny) models to show plus size clothes. This is so dumb!
Wait… JCPenny now has extended plus? Since when? After I could no longer fit in their usual stuff*, I stopped shopping there, so it’s been years since I even walked into a Penny’s. Wow. Good on them for offering at least SOME extended sizes, but bad on advertising it! It’s like with Old Navy – I never knew they offered plus sizes until I discovered Fatshionista last year. Talk about lack of effort to get my shopping dollars! :-(
*and I probably stopped shopping there even sooner than that because the “women’s plus” was geared toward older women, but I was a teen, as well as Boscov’s was cheaper than Penny’s AND I worked at Boscov’s and got a discount there.