New York Post:
By JENNIFER FERMINO

Here's some more motivation to lose those extra pounds -- recession-stung retailers are dropping plus-size clothing from their collections because it's too costly to produce.

Popular brands like Ellen Tracy have gotten rid of or scaled back production on clothes that are sizes 16 or more as a way to save money, according to a report in Crain's Business New York.

"It's almost as if certain retailers have said, 'I'll worry about losing these customers later on,' " Andrew Jassin, managing director of the retail consultancy Jassin-O'Rourke Group, told Crain's.

Ann Taylor stopped selling plus-size clothes in its stores this spring. It now offers those clothes only online.

Some Bloomingdale's stores have also stopped selling plus-size clothes, while others in the chain have drastically curtailed the floor space given to the larger clothes.

Plus-size clothes cost an extra 10 percent to produce, according to Crain's, because they need extra fabric, special-fit models, and patterns