A few years ago : Skirts from China

[Couya]

Sad to see there the Chinese were not successful in getting men's skirts into stores in the west.
Four years ago, I posted this on Facebook, feeling quite optimistic :

Chnese skirt 1.png

Capture d’écran 2015-08-22 à 16.34.41.png

They looked quite good, knee-length cotton twill, but were being sold in batches only, and I did not want 6 identical skirts. If they'd old one for less than 15€, I would have been tempted.
They are still in the AliExpress catalogue, but described as "no longer available".

Martin

[Sinned]

Yes Martin, the Chinese still haven't yet got the marketing right. When searching for skirts on ebay I see many that I like, skater skirts or great patterns such as the galaxy one, at prices I could accommodate but they are made for the slim oriental female frame. In other words the sizes stop at about a 10. I am a 14 which isn't enormous, a 34 waist, so if the skirts could just be made for normal western sizes then they could sell lots, lots more.

[crfriend]

Yes Martin, the Chinese still haven't yet got the marketing right. When searching for skirts on ebay I see many that I like, skater skirts or great patterns such as the galaxy one, at prices I could accommodate but they are made for the slim oriental female frame. In other words the sizes stop at about a 10. I am a 14 which isn't enormous, a 34 waist, so if the skirts could just be made for normal western sizes then they could sell lots, lots more.

In order for said skirts to be made in "Western sizes" they'd have to reach up into at least the mid-20s if more than 30% of the population was to be within range. The waif/"teenage boy" look -- whilst the "ideal" when it comes to the fashion industry -- is still not attainable for the vast majority of women, nor is it likely particularly medically desirable. There is an increasing dearth of "healthy-sized" women, at least in the environment I reside; they're almost to a one either impossibly scrawny and slab-sided (in "up-scale" locales) or moderately to badly overweight and either apple- or pear- shaped (everywhere else) -- no permutations of which are good signs for longevity or health in later years. There's a reason why there's a veritable epidemic of type-2 diabetes, at least in the USA.

If one also takes into account that the Oriental physique is normally sighter than the Western one, and that the population in Asia dwarfs that of the West (even if there is precious little spending-money), I can see why the sizes are so limited -- at least if one takes the very short horizon-view of modern business types.

Women are torqued off about this, too, because anybody larger than a size-6 tends to have a hard time finding stuff that's (1) attractive, (2) appropriate for any venue other than the beach or the gym, and (3) in a size that fits. My ex hated this problem, and had I made the obvious suggestion of losing 15 pounds or so I'd have had my head handed to me on a platter (it got handed to me that way, anyway, so nothing ventured nothing gained). I should be revelling in the current style as my waist is now 33" -- almost what it was when I was still in school -- but I haven't seen anything attractive enough to really catch my eye and in a fabric that I'll wear in a few years now; I think the newest skirts I have date to last year, and were a style from a couple of years before that. The last skirt I probably really spent any real money on was likely in 2010 or 11.