Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Malala Yousafzai reflects on Afghanistan and the Taliban, golf gets closer to equal pay, and Old Navy presents a roadmap for how retailers can serve plus-size shoppers. Have a great Thursday.
– The plus-size opportunity. For years now, consumers have been trying to convince clothing companies how valuable the plus-size market is. As any plus-size shopper can tell you, businesses have been slow to catch on.
Old Navy, however, is a rare example of a retailer that successfully changed course. The brand’s about-face started in 2018, when then-brand leader Sonia Syngal (now CEO of parent company Gap Inc.) instructed her team to “figure out plus,” Bloomberg reports in this story.
Until then, the mass-market brand had treated plus-size fashion like many companies do: as a separate category from straight sizing. Plus-size clothes cost consumers more (as much as $15 more for the same style of jeans), were less easily accessible in stores, and were handled by a different team inside the company.
Today, those divisions are gone. The plus-size teams at Old Navy are no more, with design integrated throughout overall women’s fashion. An item of clothing costs the same no matter what size it is. And sizes are sold together in stores. “Plus-size as an idea has essentially been removed,” Bloomberg reports.
So how did Old Navy do it—and could the brand be an example to other retailers? The business realized that it couldn’t miss out on the $32 billion plus-size fashion market any longer. Nor could it fail to serve its customers; as an affordable brand sold across the United States, Old Navy especially had an incentive to better serve the 70% of American women who wear an extended size, yet make up only a fifth of apparel sales.
Plenty of other brands have leaned into body-positive advertising, from Aerie’s no-retouching movement to Summersalt’s swimsuit ads. And there are more brands than ever, from Universal Standard to Eloquii, devoted to serving women at all sizes. But Old Navy’s revamp provides an example of the kind of structural changes a traditional retailer must make behind closed doors to eliminate bias against the plus-size shopper once and for all.
Explains head of women’s merchandising Alison Partridge Stickney: “It all comes back to listening to the customer. We heard it so loud and clear that she wanted to be included and be able to shop with her daughter and friends.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Kristen Bellstrom.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Malala speaks up. Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban for her activism for girls' education in Pakistan, writes for the NYT about her fears for women and girls in Afghanistan. "In the last two decades, millions of Afghan women and girls received an education," she writes. "Now the future they were promised is dangerously close to slipping away." New York Times
- School days. This deep diving into Kamala Harris's law school years aims to explore the forces that shaped the Vice President's view of politics and activism, offering "a window into how she thinks about her role as a politician and a Black woman in politics as she navigates being Biden’s No. 2, while also attempting to carve out her own political future." Politico
- What is a mess? The choice of Price Is Right executive producer Mike Richards as the new Jeopardy! host upset some who were hoping for a different outcome. Then came resurfaced lawsuits alleging mistreatment of female employees at the Price Is Right during Richards' tenure. (He says the complaints did "not reflect the reality of who I am.") Now new reporting from The Ringer listens back to Richards's record as a podcast host, finding that he "repeatedly used offensive language and disparaged women’s bodies." He says that the podcast was a "terribly embarrassing moment of misjudgment, thoughtlessness, and insensitivity from nearly a decade ago." The Ringer
- Menopause protection. Do menopausal women need new legal workplace protections? A UK report finds that nearly a million women say they've left their jobs due to menopausal symptoms—and the number of female workers who are suing their employers, claiming unfair dismissal and/or gender discrimination related to menopause, is on the rise. The Guardian
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: The Daily Beast, which was co-founded by Tina Brown, named Tracy Connor as its next top editor.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Mean girls? The terrifying college kids played by Sydney Sweeney (Olivia) and Brittany O’Grady (Paula) were one of the best parts of the HBO sleeper hit White Lotus. In this joint interview, they talk about their characters' fascinating dynamic and their experience filming during the pandemic New York Times
- Par for the course. Could golf ever reach equal pay—or more accurately, equal prize money? The pot for Women’s Open in Carnoustie, Scotland is jumping $1.3 million to $5.8 million this year, making it one of the richest in the women's side of the sport. However, the comparable men's tournament still pays out $10.75 million. The Guardian
- A not-so-cruel paycheck. In the wake of Scarlett Johansson's decision to sue Disney over its decision to release the Black Widow streaming (thereby depriving Johansson of her cut of box office revenues), some studios are rethinking how they structure the deals they cut with stars. The latest: Emma Stone reportedly landed a "low eight-figure payday" for the sequel to Cruella—a jump over the $8 million she made from the first film, a deal that likely included a box office component. The Hollywood Reporter
ON MY RADAR
Aspirin trialled as potential treatment for aggressive breast cancer The Guardian
Kathy Hilton’s calling New York Times
R. Kelly is on trial in Brooklyn. Here’s what you need to know NBC News
PARTING WORDS
-Sister Monica Tywang, who was born in Trinidad and moved to England in the 1960s, aged 13. She's one of the women of Caribbean descent who helped make Notting Hill carnival an essential part of British cultural life.
