Why are Hollister, A&F, etc, clothes so small?

1) As everyone else said, there target audiences are slim-figured young women and toned young men.

2) The clothes are cut to fit teenagers a.k.a. most of the people that like Hollister and Abercrombie. A lot of teenagers are well small enough to comfortably fit in their clothes because they don't have womanly curves yet.

3) Hollister and Abercrombie specifically market to people through reverse vanity sizing. Instead of cutting sizes too big and calling them two sizes smaller than what they really are to make people feel thin, they cut their clothes small so that those who can fit in their clothes feel exclusive and special.

4) Not everything at Hollister and Abercrombie runs crazy small. I have been plus sized my entire life and can fit their shirts and some of their dresses.

They're made for teenagers who are a slim body. They want a good image tied to a skinny model like teenage girl. Which is a bit unrealistic for many many teenagers and is a big attack to their self esteem. You rarely find a teenage girl who is 5'5 and wears a size 0 jeans with a thigh gap and not a single ounce of fat on their body. They want to be portrayed as a beautiful gorgeous type line of clothing. Even if that means canceling out those who are larger.

They cater to skinnier women. It can be a negative and positive thing. Although very much offensive to a variety of women, I personally love it because I'm naturally small and normal stores clothes don't fit me right and are too big. A&f company itself is notorious for being shallow with their targeted consumers but with that aside I like to think of it as the opposite of a plus sized store. Still thy should carry bigger sizes as well as small.

They give off the unrealistic image of only catering to really skinny girls.

I guess it's their store image.

Have you ever seen them have plus size clothing or curvy girls wearing their items on their site?

I have this feeling that a size 38 isn't really 38. You get what I mean? Like they purposely make a size 38= to a size 25 but then when you try them on, you may think its a 38, but its not.

Hollister and pacsun are basically made for there models like you see in the pictures fit. And there models are very skinny as seen, every brand of jeans aren't exactly the same. But if I were you I would check out American eagle! There jeans are really cute and fit better.