Melissa McCarthy’s New Fashion Line Challenges the Term Plus-Size

Melissa McCarthy is a woman who wears many hats, figuratively (and probably literally). If she were to write a memoir, it could/would include stories of a bad A actress, comedian, mother and now fashion designer. As if her newest acting gig, Ghostbusters set to come out in 2016, wasn’t enough to keep her busy, McCarthy is busy creating her own fashion line with Seven7 and challenging the term “plus-size.”

In a recent interview with Refinery 29, she explains her issues with the exclusivity of the term plus-size and how she plans to take action to make the shopping experience enjoyable for women of all sizes.

Image via: Melissa McCarthy Seven7.

“Women come in all sizes. Seventy percent of women in the United States are a size 14 or above, and that’s technically ‘plus-size,’ so you’re taking your biggest category of people and telling them, ‘You’re not really worthy.’ I find that very strange,” McCarthy told Refinery 29. “I also find it very bad business. It doesn’t make a lot of sense numbers-wise. It’s like, if you open a restaurant and you say, ‘We’re primarily gonna serve people that don’t eat.’ It’s like, what? You would be nuts. Yet, people do it with clothing lines all the time, and no one seems to have a problem with it. I just don’t get why we always have to group everything into a good or bad, right or wrong category. I just think, if you’re going to make women’s clothing, make women’s clothing. Designers that put everyone in categories are over-complicating something that should be easy.”

Melissa McCarthy Seven7 comes in sizes four through 28, and launches this month in retailers across the world , including Nordstrom, Macy’s, HSN, Bloomingdale’s, Lane Bryant, and Evans. Due to McCarthy’s all-inclusive sizing, it seems you will find her line hanging in the women’s section not just the plus-size women’s section.

Image via: Melissa McCarthy Seven7.

“I don’t like the segregated plus section. You’re saying: ‘You don’t get what everybody else gets. You have to go shop up by the tire section.’ I have a couple of very big retailers that I think are going to help me chip away at that in a very meaningful way, and I’m really excited about it. I’m not ready to announce them yet, but they agreed to just put me on the floor. I said, ‘Run the sizes as I make them and let friends go shopping with their friends. Stop segregating women.’ And they said, ‘Okay.’”

*Insert praise emoji here*

You can browse and shop her line on HSN now, or wait until it is released later this month in retailers everywhere.