Why the lack of cute plus sized clothing?

[TxDoc]

So many awesome choices for teeny tiny women. For example, I found the Vanderkitten website and I LOVE their jerseys. But when an XL is a size 10-12, that really pisses me off and makes me feel like a huge cow Seriously, a size 10-12 is EXTRA LARGE??? Really??

Don't know, but - what I was taught when I was growing up is that 0-2= XS, 2-4=S, 4-6=M, 6-8=L, anything 10 and above=XL. So I guess 10-12 really is XL, or maybe I'm confused?

Some manufacturers take plus size women seriously, such as Terry and Sheebeast, but everyone else ignores us. Larger women like cute stuff too!! I don't want to dress in a tent just because hardly anyone seems to think that plus size women could possibly get on a bike and actually ride and want to look as cute as we can doing it (I know not everyone wants to look cute on a bike...point is that the thin girls get the opportunity, while the big girls really don't have much choice at all).

Back to your question though - I guess the main factor is marketing, since the companies' purpose is to actually sell their clothes. So what they do is to cater to the majority of cyclists. And cyclists tend to be of slim athletic build.
Now if you turn on th TV and watch a stage of a grand tour - well, most cyclists are in the average BMI range or below average. Likewise, if you ride around in your area and meet team members or club members - probably overweight cyclists will be a small minority.
So if a company wants to make good sale #s, they need to sell a lot of shorts and jerseys (especially cute ones as you say) - and so they need to make sure that their marketing target is the majority of cyclists which is low-to-average weight.

Now, if you say that this leaves out whoever does not meet the marketing/publicity standards and you don't like it - yes, I hear you. There are, as you said, some companies that develop within a market niche and provide good products to everyone regardless of size - but I would guess that most companies would try to cater to a larger # of cyclists, and that does not include the subpopulation of overweight/plus sizes.

One solution is semi-custom, a couple of my cycling buddies on the heavy side have ordered a lot of custom and semi-custom items to have nicer jerseys and kits. And, as Trek said, here on TE they have some products for plus sizes. But that's about all I can suggest, don't know much about it

Not sure if I was able to answer in a way that makes sense - I'm not a marketing expert so really I don't know. Maybe Susan here on TE can help with a more detailed insight - Susan illuminate all of us please?