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While prestigious model competitions such as America Next Top Model has opened its doors to plus-size models, fashion label Abercrombie & Fitch has just realised its folly in shutting its doors to clothes for bigger shoppers.

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However, with share prices and sales plummeting, the fashion store will soon eat humble pie and place on its shelves beginning next spring "expanded sizes, colors and fits," Reuters reports.

The soon-to-be-reversed policy was put in place in 2006. Chief Executive Officer Mike Jeffries said the store wanted to cater exclusively to cool kids who have small body sizes. To get even with the store, people purchased Abercrombie & Fitch items in thrift stores and distributed it to homeless people to damage the brand.

Because of its being choosy, Abercrombie suffered its seventh straight quarterly decline in same-store sales, and on Wednesday, its share price plummeted 10.4 per cent to $34.35.

Other than dealing with the backlash of angry plus-size consumers, Abercrombie appears to be spending unnecessarily on storefronts despite more buyers preferring to purchase items online instead of in bricks-and-mortar retail outlets.

The retailer also appeared to be stuck with the members of Generation X as their main market, forgetting the emergence of Generation Y or the millennials as a retail force to reckon with.

Meanwhile, while Abercrombie is learning its retail lessons the hard way, Debenhams in UK had gone one step ahead and placed on store displays UK size 16 (US size 12) mannequins on its Oxford Street flagship store. The plus-size mannequins are in the front area, not in the plus-size corners of Debenhams.

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By December, in time for the yearend holiday shopping, Debenhams would mix the size 10 and size 16 mannequins.

Ed Watson, director of Debenhams, explained to Huffington Post, "The average British woman is a size 16, but the high street has been showing the clothing on a mannequin that is three size smaller ... Having worked on this project for three years, we hope that it will help people in some small way to feel comfortable about their bodies and crucially, that other retailers will follow."

Hopefully, Abercrombie is listening.