Ashley Graham and JCPenney Redefine Fashion’s Ozempic Era

While most brands shrink their sizing to chase the “Ozempic body,” JCPenney’s bold new campaign celebrates curves—and customers are loving it.

As many fashion brands narrow their size ranges to fit a culture obsessed with thinness, one of America’s oldest retailers is betting on curves—and winning.

While much of the industry races to capitalize on the Ozempic effect with slimmer collections and fewer extended sizes, JCPenney is taking the opposite approach. The 122-year-old retailer has launched Omitted, a cinematic new campaign starring supermodel and body positivity icon Ashley Graham, alongside a new collection designed exclusively for curvy women.

“Why aren’t these women more often the actual main characters in pop culture and films?” asks Marisa Thalberg, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Marketing Officer at Catalyst Brands (which owns JCPenney). Discussing the motivation behind the collection for curvy women, she told me, “This is a line that has main character energy.”

The Ozempic Era

From designer runways to department stores, the ripple effects of GLP-1 weight loss drugs are hard to miss. As CNBC recently reported, brands like Abercrombie and Old Navy are quietly producing smaller size runs to meet shifting demand from customers on Ozempic, Zepbound and other weight loss drugs. Forbes called it “a disruption of fashion retail unlike anything since the athleisure boom,” with Fortune noting that secondhand luxury is thriving as women purge their larger wardrobes.

But while others follow the trend, JCPenney is rewriting it. Thalberg says the company’s mission is to “open up the tent to all possibilities,” making fashion accessible not only across price points but across all shapes and sizes.

“If you look at some of the best pieces in the collection, it’s the ones that celebrate the curves the most,” adds Michelle Wlazlo, Brand CEO at JCPenney.

Omitted: A Fake Movie Making a Real Statement

The Omitted campaign looks and feels like a Hollywood movie trailer, complete with sweeping camera angles, dramatic lighting and Graham commanding the screen. The twist? There’s no actual film.

In the trailer, Graham looks into the camera and asks, “Did you ever feel like you were invisible? Because women like me, we’re rarely cast as the lead.” A narrator follows, “In a world where 67% of women wear sizes 14–34… only 6.7% of film characters reflect them.”

Created by creative agency Mischief, the campaign debuted in movie theaters nationwide before major fall releases, including Roofman and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. “We launched the collection with a fake movie designed to make a very real statement,” says Dana Buckhorn, Mischief’s Creative Director. “The campaign isn’t just about clothing. It’s about refusing to fade into the background.”

The name Omitted underscores the message that curvy women have long been left out of films, fashion and fitting rooms. “This is a confident, proud collection that is totally fashion,” says Thalberg. She describes the collection as one that truly celebrates curves.

Ashley Graham: From Model to Creative Director

This isn’t a superficial celebrity collaboration. Graham, who began her modeling career with JCPenney nearly 15 years ago, returned not just as a face and a body, but as a creative director.

“I brought in suitcases of pieces I loved – the stretch, the fabric, the cut,” Graham told me. “I wanted to create clothes that actually work for women like me.” She was involved in every aspect, from fabrics and silhouettes to selecting the plus-size influencers who appear in the campaign.

The collection, priced between $40 and $300, runs from sizes 14W to 30W (0X–5X) and is available both in-store and online, a key distinction, since many brands still relegate extended sizes to online-only channels.

“I think we’ve done a really good job of having a woman in her 40s or 50s be really into this line, as well as a girl in her 20s be really excited that there’s something affordable but that also feels young for her,” Graham shared.

Graham laughed when recalling co-workers’ reactions to the collection. “Some of the designers said, ‘I want that!’ and the rest of us were like, ‘Well, you can’t have it.’ And that’s the point; this one’s for us.”