How Ozempic Is Forcing Fashion to Rethink Fit

Over the last three years, Holly Ann Burningham, vice president of design for intimates maker Soma, has lost 90 pounds with the help of GLP-1 medication. But the process turned out to be more than a personal milestone — it doubled as research for the brand.

Burningham, a 23-year design veteran at Soma, whose sister brands include Chico’s and White House Black Market, has found herself confronting an issue she suspected was beginning to affect many customers in the Ozempic era: a loss of tissue density and elasticity in her breasts.

“When you’ve lost weight, you get that kind of hollow spot at the top of your cup — a lot of women experience that gaping at the neckline of their bras,” Burningham said.

In June, the brand will relaunch a reimagined, upgraded version of its “top fill bra” — an innovation it debuted in 2014 that was popular with new mothers and breastfeeding women. Soma is betting it will be similarly popular with the roughly one in eight Americans who have used GLP-1 medications, according to data from health research group KFF.

“It’s definitely a new conversation,” said Lexy Onofrio, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of Chico’s FAS. “Women are coming in with this and talking about it.”

Soma is one of the few brands to openly update its design and merchandising to reflect the very real impact GLP-1 drugs are having on consumers in the US and globally, but it certainly will not be the last. A May report from Morning Consult identified GLP-1 users as its own distinct consumer cohort, finding they not only shopped more often but spent more when they did; 71 percent are shopping for apparel in a given month and a growing share are emerging as heavy buyers. In its second-quarter earnings call in March, StitchFix chief executive Matt Baer said the subscription service logged a 75 percent surge in customer mentions of weight loss in their styling notes in the last two years. Since then, Baer told BoF, it’s grown another 20 percent.

For fashion firms navigating a broader slowdown — buoyed by inflation, geopolitical uncertainty and softening demand — there’s a clear opportunity. But it’s a complicated one to unlock.

These consumers may have an appetite for shopping, but many of their individual needs can vary significantly. Headlines focused on people simply getting thinner oversimplify reality: widespread GLP-1 use is reshaping bodies in more complex ways, and “size volatility” is becoming a very real challenge brands and retailers need to address, said Liza Amlani, a former retail merchant and co-founder of the consultancy Retail Strategy Group.

“Everyone in product creation, from merchandising to technical design, needs to be aware of the shift in sizing within their own market,” Amlani said. “It’s not just that we suddenly need smaller sizes. GLP-1 is changing how a size small actually fits.”

The knock-on effects are already rippling through the market. Insiders say retailers are carrying more inventory as planning and allocation become harder to forecast, demand in categories like shapewear and intimates shifts, and some bridal stores have asked customers to sign fit waivers as more brides buy smaller dress sizes in anticipation of losing weight on GLP-1 medications.

The best-positioned brands are not just shrinking sizes, but rethinking design and building flexibility and innovation into garments themselves. They’re also positioning themselves as partners helping customers navigate those changes.

“The philosophy is… to understand what’s happening with women, their bodies, and how we create the products that really work for them,” Burningham said.

Fit in Flux

The rise of weight-loss drugs is exposing and accelerating a problem fashion has long struggled to solve: sizing systems built for static bodies in a world where people’s bodies are anything but, experts say.

Retailers have historically relied on “size packs” — standardised, cost-efficient allocation models that forecast demand months in advance and assume a fixed size curve (think 100 smalls, 1,000 mediums and 500 larges), Amlani said. But GLP-1-driven weight loss — and, in some cases, weight regain — is rapidly eroding those assumptions.

At Stitch Fix, a shift in size needs is already showing up in purchase data. Over the past two years, the company has seen demand move away from larger sizes, with the biggest gains in size small. In bottoms, shoppers are shifting toward sizes 0 to 10 and out of sizes 12 to 24, Baer said.

The broader industry, meanwhile, is still grappling with how quickly those shifts are unfolding.

“Across retail, we have a gap between where we sit and where the customer is,” Amlani said. “Their sizing and their shift in sizing is moving so quickly [while] we are very far away from closing that gap.”

Complicating matters further, garments themselves are still built on standardised fit blocks that are rarely updated and offer little flexibility. Even when customers technically measure the same size, differences in body composition and shape mean traditional sizing can fall short — compounding fashion’s long-standing sizing problem, where consistency breaks down across brands and even within the same brand from season to season.

Soma’s upcoming launch of its “top fill bra” builds on earlier efforts to design for fluctuation. In 2022, the brand introduced its “bodify” bra, a flexible style engineered to adapt to changes tied to menstruation, ageing, breastfeeding and weight loss. During the early months of her own weight loss journey, Burningham found herself relying heavily on the Bodify as her size shifted faster than her wardrobe could keep up.

“We’re seeing an influx of women coming in and saying ‘I’ve lost some weight,’ but the solutions she needs are just different,” Burningham said. “I’m personally [now] much more focused on things that smooth me … but [other] women are coming in and they want a different level of support because they’re smaller.”

At Stitch Fix, Baer said the high volume of clients experiencing or preparing for weight loss reflects similar needs.

“Some folks are coming to us seeking to overhaul the entirety of their wardrobe,” he said. “Other folks are saying, ‘my body’s in the midst of a transformation and I need help with assortment at the moment that can bridge me in my journey.’”

Room to Grow

Brands like Soma — which emphasises innovation and flexibility not just in its designs but in its marketing, using everyday women across a range of ages and body types — and subscription services like Stitch Fix, which trades on personal stylists and human connection, are in many ways built for the Ozempic era.

Elsewhere, Amlani said she’s seen some brands adding stretch through elastic and synthetic blends, but she’s cautious about relying on that tactic as a one-size-fits-all solution.

“It brings up another issue with materials and sourcing regulations,” Amlani said. “Not to mention, is every customer going to want that?”

Experimenting with silhouette is another lever: she pointed to oversized styles, like those popularised by Cos, as one way brands can introduce more flexibility into fit.

In the bridal space, some boutiques have started asking customers to sign waivers acknowledging that a gown purchased today may not fit at the time of sale, but is expected to fit by the wedding day, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

David’s Bridal, by contrast, is turning that pressure into a selling point. The retailer in May introduced a “fit guarantee,” described as a response to “fit-related anxiety in the modern era,” where “change is beautiful.” The new programme allows brides to change size, opt for alterations or, in some cases, switch to a new dress.

“It’s now become something we want to actually stand for in the market and put a stake in the ground,” said chief executive Kelly Cook.

The company has seen more customers changing sizes and shopping closer to their wedding date — including a roughly 15 percent increase in brides purchasing two months out versus the traditional six, Cook said.

The company has moved to “strengthen and tighten up” its rush processes across its 36 global factories to be able to meet the anticipated demand of its new fit guarantee, she noted.

David’s Bridal has long offered its so-called “alterations for all” services to other retailers, but Cook said the company is increasingly fielding requests from brands — including in categories like denim, activewear and occasion dressing — navigating shifting size demand.

Amlani said she is increasingly advising retailers toward more agile solutions — including investing in moving away from rigid, standardised order cycles and building in more room for mid-season adjustments.

“We are signing up boutiques like crazy every single week right now,” David’s Bridal’s Cook said.