Brands have struggled to become a fashion source for women who wear clothing beyond size 12. Now, two retailers that have built the plus-size category with big-name brands are merging, becoming a one-stop-shop.
On Wednesday, 7-year-old e-plus-size fashion e-tailer Dia & Co. announced the acquisition of its luxury fashion-focused counterpart, 11 Honoré. Both companies declined to share financial details of the deal.
“We have always believed that plus is a team sport,” Nadia Boujarwah, co-founder and CEO of Dia & Co, told Glossy. “The experience we are designing for our customer, one where they have the ability to shop without limitations of style or brand, it has never existed before and it takes a partnership to build it.”
According to Patrick Herning, founder of 11 Honoré, “[Boujarwah’s] Category experience coupled with our brand positioning is a perfect match. We are prepared to be ‘the’ destination to serve this client, serving her comprehensively, from t-shirts to Carolina Herrera. That mitigates all frustration, all friction, all challenges. [for our customer].”
Both companies have remained strictly focused on serving underserved women, with Dia & Co. specializing in sizes 10-32 and 11 Honoré offering sizes 12-24. This is how retailers and brands, including Nordstrom and Universal Standard, have prioritized providing the same shopping experience for women of all sizes, in rejection of the old setup of a separate plus-size department.
According to Dia & Co.’s March 2021 State of Inclusive Fashion Report, 100 million American women, or 67% of the female population, wear a size 14 or larger. At the same time, in 2020, sales of styles in sizes 14 and up accounted for just 13% of the womenswear market.
Personal style has been at the core of Dia & Co’s business model since Boujarwah and Lydia Gilbert launched the company. In addition to functioning like a typical e-commerce site, allowing shoppers to add items to cart independently, it offers unique curated style boxes and a style quiz-based box subscription. Their marketplace sells styles by massive brands and DTC, including Madewell, ThirdLove, and Eloquii.
Launched in 2017 by marketing agency veteran Herning, 11 Honoré came to market with a mission to co-develop and sell plus-size designer fashion amid rampant sizeism in the industry. Their assortment currently includes styles from Diane von Furstenberg and Tanya Taylor, among other high-end brands. Model Candice Huffine is an investor.
Effective immediately, 11 Honoré’s private label, 11 Honoré Collection, will be available to purchase on Dia.com, while continuing to sell on the 11 Honoré e-commerce site. 11 Honoré’s full product catalog and online presence will be integrated into Dia & Co. in the coming months.
According to Herning, the 11 Honoré Collection, developed in 2019 and focused on accessible basics, has been “everything to do with” the continued “measurable success, scale and growth with profitability” of 11 Honoré during the pandemic. Its price range is $25 to $570, compared to the $60 to $5,000 range of 11 Honore’s partner brands. His second drop focused on sweats.
According to Boujarwah, retailers have struggled to get plus-size offerings off the ground on their own, largely due to marketing-related challenges. On Thursday, Old Navy announced its decision to scale back its pioneering Bodequality initiative, offering counts 0-30 across all of its sales channels. Loft, for its part, eliminated its plus business in the fall of 2021.
“Unfortunately, it’s a pattern that has been repeated many times,” Boujarwah said, on Old Navy news. “Developing garments that fit well, getting the inventory and distribution right, and investing in the awareness necessary to make new offerings successful continues to be a very high demand for brands.”
The partnership, which broadens both companies’ customer bases, creates a compelling proposition for brands considering entering the plus-size category, Herning said. “We have the eyeballs, we have the client. All they need to do is invest in product development.”
Herning, who had been brand director for 11 Honoré, said his role going forward will be that of founder. He noted that the creative and merchandising teams that built the 11 Honoré brand will join Dia & Co. under the deal.
Regarding the timing of the sale, Herning said, “We over-indexed the brand and had customer acquisition challenges. Besides, we had gotten as far as we could on our own. The best thing for the business, our clients and our shareholders was to find a new home that would give us the opportunity [to chart] our next phase of growth.”
In December 2020, Herning co-founded Thirteen Lune, an e-retailer that sells beauty products from Black and brand founders. In July 2021, she signed a deal with JCPenney to help fill the beauty void left by Sephora, in her move to Kohl’s.
Source: news.google.com