Connor Norton on Redesigning Luxury for Bigger Men at MANY Apparel

As fashion continues to expand its language around inclusivity, true innovation lies in who garments are actually designed to fit, and who they have historically excluded. In this BRIDGE conversation for the newest edition of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ series, Founder of MANY Apparel Connor Norton reflects on challenging traditional grading systems, designing from a 3XL starting point rather than a size S block, redefining what mid-level luxury means for bigger men, and navigating visibility in an industry that has long treated extended sizing as an afterthought rather than a design priority.

Q and A

You chose to design every piece on your own body rather than rely on standard size grading. What did that process change about how you think fit should actually work for bigger men?

One of the reasons for starting this brand in the first place was this very flaw in the design process that I had become aware of while trying to dress my own body. While trying on multiple sizes, I kept running into the same issue, parts of a smaller size garment fit me best, while parts of the larger size would fit me best. I know this is not a unique experience. I would imagine any person of any size has this issue, but I found it to be quite exaggerated with larger sizes. Say for example the shoulders were tight in a smaller size, but the crop of the shirt fit well, going up one size would help the shoulders but there would be around an additional 4 inches on the crop of the shirt which is pretty drastic. It was when I went to my grader that I realized the standard grade between sizes XS-L is about 1.5 inches, so 1.5 inches would be added to key points of the garment when scaling up sizes. I found out that the standard grade for sizes XL-6XL is about 4.5 inches, which is a huge jump from a 1.5 inch grade. It became clear to me that these larger sizes are traditionally catch-all garments for larger bodies. People who use standard grading are far less concerned with how a garment looks on a larger body and more concerned with at least having a garment that could fit onto a larger body, no matter how ill-fitting it actually was. 

I also chose to start my pattern from a size 3XL and for the most part, grade down instead of up. I think this process helps bigger guys with the fit of their garments primarily because the starting point of a 3XL  is more familiar or adjacent than starting with a size S. A size 3XL is going to have a broad frame with maybe more weight added in certain areas, but a size S is not going to have a broad frame to begin with. So when trying to fit a garment on a broader frame XL, a 3XL starting point already has far more in common than a S, and when it comes to designing, this broad frame starting point is inherent in the clothing. It doesn't need to be manufactured in grading like it would if the garment was designed on a size S. 

You were very intentional about casting for the launch of MANY. How important was it that customers could see themselves reflected in the people wearing the clothes?

When it came to casting, I already knew that I needed bigger guys because my size range is a L-4XL and 36-46 inch waist, so a traditional model wouldn’t even fit into my garments. But one of the key things I was focused on here was letting big guys be advertised clothing with people who look like them in it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to a website and found a shirt I like in a size 3XL and the image that I’m advertised is a skinny size S/M model wearing the clothing. I just have to wonder, how am I supposed to know what this is going to look like on my body? Sure it looks good on a S/M, but experience has told me what looks good on a smaller body doesn’t necessarily mean it will look good on mine. So not only was this about representation, it's actually meant to just be helpful to my consumer - to help bridge the gap between what they see online and what they will see in person when they purchase this garment. My consumer can see how a garment hits a curve on their body, how it drapes on the shoulders, they can see that the top button on our button down shirt would fit their neck because they see it fitting the neck on a model who’s roughly around their size. I think seeing bigger guys shot in a more editorial way in our campaigns is an added benefit, because we all know there is a severe lack of this in the public domain. 

You’ve described MANY as mid level luxury. How did you define that space for yourself while you were building the brand?

This was tough, I originally set out thinking I wanted my price point to be around $150-$300 dollars, but as I quickly learned this is very tough to do as a small business. Scale plays a huge role in price point and since I don’t have large investment into my brand just yet, to make 100 garments my manufacturing labour would cost me around X amount of dollars, and to make 300 garments manufacturing labour would cost me roughly around the same amount of money. With more volume, you can spread your manufacturing labour costs across more garments, but in order to do so you have to have the investment to buy the materials (fabric, trimmings, buttons, etc.) which I did not have. It was here that I decided, not only do I want the fit and patterns of my garments to be top tier, I would like to play with luxury fabrics, luxury buttons, luxury trimmings to make my price point $200-$400 to make sense for my consumer. If my garments have to be priced in this range, they need to be worth the price. I call us a mid-level luxury brand because while we offer luxury quality of the designers that charge upwards of $700 for garments, we price our clothes more in the middle tier of luxury, for example like the brand Staud. I also was keenly aware that I am the first brand ever to cater to bigger guys in the luxury market. This is a new offering on the market and for a consumer that has been highly disregarded, I cannot imagine a large push for all of a sudden spending $700 dollars on a garment. Because this is such a new offering, we need the price point to seem somewhat attainable. 

Now that MANY is live and designed specifically for bigger men, what feels different about the challenge of solving this problem at scale rather than just living it personally?

Now that we are live and our product is made, the most difficult part is finding my consumer, reaching my consumer and allowing them to hear my story and the design enhancements I’ve added to the plus size men's market. This is one of the reasons I’m so grateful for this opportunity and to be doing it with Bridge, because you also cater primarily to a group of people that are traditionally alienated from this industry. You know, I constantly see articles written by journalists calling for Big Guy Luxury or asking what the hold up is with body conscious clothing and at some point I want to hold up a mirror and say, you! We are out here innovating clothing and fighting for our space in the fashion world, but the gates don’t seem to open very easily. With my brand specifically, I used a stylist that styles for these high level publications. I used a photographer that photographs for these high level publications. I also spent a year on developing a new innovative way of flattering the larger body in clothing, yet it's very difficult for my story to be championed despite these bridges I’ve built with familiar creatives and the design innovation that's gone into these garments. So yes, while I’ve made a product I’m proud of and confident that it's the best on the market for bigger guys, it’s been difficult to get the word out there and have my voice be heard! 

You spent over a year developing this before launch. What was the hardest part of sticking with it quietly before anyone else could see it?

I have a lot of friends who are artists, writers, etc. and I’ve always heard them express fear before putting a project out into the world. Wondering about its reception, and honestly this was the first time I understood that feeling haha. Feelings of imposter syndrome were common for me in the year developing this launch, but every time I would go into our pattern maker and see the clothing on my body, they faded because I saw first hand how flattering our clothing really is. 

Another difficulty during development was just the general bias I received when telling people what I was working on, a luxury flattering clothing line for bigger guys. For a lot of people, they couldn’t see the vision or understand the thesis of this project probably because it was so foreign to them, not having the experience of trying to dress a body that falls outside of the traditional size range. But hey, it's not for them in the first place! 

Coming from a background in entertainment and publicity, what helped you most when it came to launching a physical product rather than a service or campaign?

I’m not sure the benefits from my previous careers working in entertainment publicity, artist management, or most recently as an agent for wardrobe stylists had to do with developing a physical product per se, but I can tell you my network helped me greatly in this endeavour! As I mentioned before, because of my role as an agent in the fashion world, I got to work with some very distinguished creatives. My stylist on the campaign, a former client of mine, brought such a great vision to our campaign. He’d previously done work for Thom Browne, Telfar, etc. and to have him on this project was beyond, alongside his encouragement, having had the difficult job of styling people outside of the traditional size range before. Additionally my photographer who’s shot campaigns for Marc Jacobs, Mac, Equinox, brought incredible technique and vision to our campaign shoot. If not for my network prior to launching this brand, I don’t think I would’ve had such accomplished visionaries on my project. It’s also not lost on me how impactful it is to see larger bodies being shot with such vision and care. I’ve rarely seen that happen before.

About Connor

Connor Norton is the founder of MANY Apparel, a menswear brand redefining style for bigger bodies with intention. Built to serve men who are often overlooked by fashion, MANY focuses on elevated essentials that actually fit, without compromise. Norton’s work sits at the intersection of design, representation, and culture, pushing the industry to make room for many more men.

Series credit

Part of BRIDGE Agency's Bridging the Gap interview series.

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