Episode 38 of the Savor Food and Body Podcast is all about body size inclusivity in the Outdoor apparel industry.
When was the last time you felt confident in your pants?
What about the last time you put on a pair of jeans or pants and didn’t cringe at the fit?
Too tight here. Too loose there. High waisted. Low-riders. And why does a large in one brand fit while a large in another brand wouldn’t fit your pre-teen daughter?
Clothes shopping, specifically pants shopping, can be a body image landmine – especially in outdoor gear.
Raquel Vélez is the Founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot, an outdoor apparel company that caters to bodies size 14 and above and people of color.
She joins me on this Savor Food and Body Podcast episode to talk about why she’s on a mission to help women everywhere find joy in the outdoors instead of fussing about their pants chaffing their thighs or showing off their backside when bending under fallen trees or climbing a trail.
Finding Body Size Inclusivity in Outdoor Fashion
In this interview, you’ll hear…
- How and why Raquel decided to make a career pivot from software engineering to clothing design.
- Raquel’s explanation of why body neutrality and equality should be more important than body positivity in the clothing industry – especially the outdoor industry.
- The barriers our culture imposes that keep the outdoors from being accessible to all body sizes and what we can do as a collective culture to dismantle those barriers.
- Raquel explains how the clothing industry designs sizes, why fit can feel “off” the larger the size, and how she designs clothes differently at Alpine Parrot.
- Finally, Raquel shares what makes the Alpine Parrot hiking pants unique and joy-promoting no matter how you’re feeling about your body at the moment.
If you’ve been wanting to try hiking or walking around your block but haven’t been able to find comfortable pants to wear, this episode will explain why it’s the clothes (and industry), not your body that’s the problem.
Alpine Parrot is an Outdoor Apparel Brand that focuses on Body Size Inclusivity and Equality
Raquel Vélez is the Founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot, an outdoor apparel company that caters specifically to people of size and people of color.
She brings with her almost two decades of engineering experience, having received her degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech, worked and studied as a robotics engineer, and eventually shifted over to software engineering and engineering management.
Now, as an apparel engineer, she’s creatively tackling one of the oldest (and most polluting) industries by creating sustainable, inclusive clothing for a market of people who have so often been neglected in the outdoor space. As a plus-sized Latina who discovered her love of the outdoors later in life, Raquel has put an incredible amount of careful consideration into the design of each product, focusing on great fit and quality construction.
Raquel was recently named an Outsider 2021 by Outside Magazine for her contribution to making the outdoors more size diverse and inclusive.
Learn more about Alpine Parrot clothing and sign up to be a fit tester on their website or follow them on social media @alpineparrot
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