Melissa McCarthy Slams the Term 'Plus-Size,' Launches Own Line

"You’re ... telling them, ‘You’re not really worthy,'" she said.

ByABC News
August 18, 2015, 1:40 PM

— -- Melissa McCarthy is a bona fide movie star, but the actress actually moved to New York in the 1980s to become a fashion designer.

The "Ghostbusters" star, 44, spoke to Refinery 29 about her new line, Melissa McCarthy Seven7, and slammed the term plus-size as it refers to clothing lines.

"Women come in all sizes. Seventy percent of women in the United States are a size 14 or above, and that’s technically ‘plus-size,’ so you’re taking your biggest category of people and telling them, ‘You’re not really worthy.’ I find that very strange," she told the site.

She added that she just thinks it's bad business. Her line sells clothes up to a size 28. Nordstrom, the Home Shopping Network and Macy’s are just a few of the outlets that will carry the actress' line.

"It doesn’t make a lot of sense numbers-wise. It’s like, if you open a restaurant and you say, ‘We’re primarily gonna serve people that don’t eat.’ It’s like, what? You would be nuts. Yet, people do it with clothing lines all the time, and no one seems to have a problem with it," she continued.

Instead, the acclaimed actress believes there shouldn't be categories.

"Designers that put everyone in categories are over-complicating something that should be easy," she added.

She joked that plus-size people have to shop "by the tire section" and are segregated in a way.

"I have a couple of very big retailers that I think are going to help me chip away at that in a very meaningful way, and I’m really excited about it ... I said, ‘Run the sizes as I make them and let friends go shopping with their friends. Stop segregating women.’ And they said, ‘OK.’” she revealed.

McCarthy said the inspiration for the line came from her own struggles to find things to wear.

"I would go out and shop by myself, I guess I was always kind of repeatedly disappointed that things skewed so much older or so much younger ... I just thought, ‘Where are the clothes for me?’" she said.