Sophisticated new options for plus-size shoppers.
Fashion designers are influenced by what they see on the street — and, increasingly, by the size of the people on the street.
Full-figured celebrities like Serena Williams, Ashley Graham and Kim Kardashian are embracing their curves, body acceptance campaigns are on the rise, and the average American woman is growing, too — from a size 14 in 2010 to a size 16-18 today, according to a 2016 study by Washington State University researchers.
Plus-size women’s fashion is the hottest new segment of the fashion industry, as designers and entrepreneurs strive to satisfy customers deprived of the latest in highend apparel, because they can’t find what they want in brick-and-mortar stores. And not a moment too soon.
Those customers represent a more than $20 billion chunk of the U.S apparel industry’s $218.7 billion market, according to published reports citing NPD, a market research firm.
It was personal experience — being shunted to a separate corner “somewhere on the top floor near the nonstick pans” to buy clothes — that led Alexandra Waldman, a former fashion editor who is a plus-size woman, to create Universal Standard, a womenswear company in New York, with former investment manager Polina Veksler in in 2015.
Within weeks of launching their brand of minimalist styles (designed by Waldman in sizes 10 to 28, priced from $30 to $160), their line of jeans sold out and they had 1,700 customers on a wait list. On a visit to San Francisco last month for pop-ups at Nordstrom and in Hayes Valley, as part of a national swing that included a plus-size model search, Waldman noted that a common theme among their clients was the dislike of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores.
“It feels shameful; it’s where your pain lives,” she explained. “You feel like the world is once again telling you that you deserve every inconvenience you experience because you have a big body.” Customer feedback to their apparel has been positive, Veksler said, and to go a step further for their clients, the company this year launched a Universal Fit Liberty program. It allows customers who buy pieces from the core collection, and who fluctuate in size, to exchange the garment for a better-fitting size within a year of purchase.
Two San Francisco companies bolstering focus on plus sizes include Stitch Fix, an online subscription and personal shopping service, which added plus-size apparel for its customers in February, and ModCloth, an indie and vintage-inspired company recently acquired by Jet.com that has taken the visual sting out of shopping by removing plus size as a separate category on its home page. Plus size is searchable on the site, but all product photos now list every size available, from XXS through 4X.
In addition, more of ModCloth’s clothing is being photographed on plus-size models — 65 percent today compared to 14 percent a year ago, and more of its apparel is available in plus sizes — 70 percent today compared to 15 percent two years ago. “While not 100 percent,” said Nicole Haase, ModCloth’s vice president of merchandising, in an email, “we are moving in the right direction and my hope is that the rest of the retail landscape will adopt this attitude as well.”
The real game changer could be new online retailer 11 Honoré, a Los Angeles company, which sells high-end apparel in sizes 10 to 20. The roster includes Badgley Mischka, Monique Lhuillier, Brandon Maxwell, Reem Acra, Naeem Khan and Temperley London, among others.
Launched in August by former American Vogue editor Kathryn Retzer and Los Angeles marketing executive Patrick Herning, it aims to improve customer access to plus-size apparel that many designers are already making — but that department stores decline to stock.
In less than three months, 11 Honoré has attracted shoppers from across the nation, even with apparel priced at $495 to $3,000. “Our customer is everywhere — New Jersey, Kentucky, Houston, Tiburon and Alexandria, Va.,” Herning said at a cocktail party in San Francisco that introduced the startup on Sept. 20. “Our customer is not afraid to spend on designer clothing.”
The focus is on silhouettes that will work for a variety of body shapes, without clients feeling “vulgar or constricted,” said the company’s style director, Jessica Raiter. “A woman’s curves, whether bigger or smaller, are a beautiful part of a woman.”
Lead investor Kirsten Green, founder of Silicon Valley’s Forerunner Ventures, and entrepreneur Komal Shah provided funding and see potential. Designers do, too.
“This is an incredible business opportunity,” said Zac Posen, by email. “I design clothes to empower women, and I am proud to be partnering with a platform that is inclusive and acknowledging the reality of women’s beautiful diversity.”
Others embracing diversity include plus-size mall store Lane Bryant, currently collaborating with designer Prabal Gurung, and Long Tall Sally, a London clothing and shoe brand for women 5-foot-8 and taller, which recently introduced a capsule collection called Karl Lagerfeld Paris at Long Tall Sally. Tops, cold-shoulder bow sweaters, mixed tweed jackets, dresses and other apparel ranging from $79 to $369 is offered in sizes from XS to XL.
For 11 Honoré and others trying to bring higher style to consumers wearing non-traditional sizes, the time is now.
“We literally hit (New York’s) Seventh Avenue last spring and went door to door, saying, ‘Hi, Mrs. Herrera, what do you think?’ ’’ said Retzer, recalling her pitch to designer Carolina Herrera and others in the Garment District. “And every single person said, ‘This is brilliant. Why isn’t anyone else doing it?’ ”