Ahead of the curve: Plus-size stores

In my experience as a consumer, once you find a fit or a style that suits you and your body shape, you run with it, get another colour and buy a replacement, just in case. 

It is important [for designers] to be consistent with fit – styling, colours, fabrics will always change based on the trends and the season, but customers rely on the fit to be consistent. At Curve Project, we are working really hard with our technical design team and pattern makers to be consistent. We want our customers to know that they can really count on us to give them what they want.

The challenge for [customers with a] favourite style or look is it stops you from taking chances, buying something new, pushing outside your comfort zone and moving with the trends.

We are always talking about how we can offer something that will give the customer confidence in her body shape, look great and still be relevant and on-trend. It should be new and fun – it’s fashion!

Fabric is a huge part of our success at Curve Project – quality fabrics at affordable prices. More and more customers are leaning towards natural fibres, stretch fabrics and clothes with luxe handles. 

What are some of the opportunities out there for retailers in the plus-size sector? 

I think presence and variety is lacking in the sector. There are not enough options within brands for customers to choose from compared to the mainstream sector, and there are too many tired old brands not evolving with what the customer really wants.

You can only excite the customer with discounting for so long. Everyone wants something new and fresh. It’s fashion for a reason.

We hit our first million sales benchmark in November and December, which is very exciting for a new business that only started in July, so customers are clearly responding. It looks like we have hit on a potentially winning concept.

What are some of the considerations designers need to think about when creating collections for plus-size women?  

All the different body shapes, customer lifestyles and product end use, fashion trends, fabric performance and most importantly, how the customer will look and feel wearing the garment. Our team knows what it is like to be curvy and want fashionable clothes that fit your shape.

Why did you decide to include size 10 in the range?  

We do not get criticism about shocking size 10 in our range, people say that size 10 is not curvy. At Curve Project, we disagree and think any size can be curvy. Clearly the customers buying size 10 from us also feel the same. 

People come in all different shapes and sizes and we respect that. Our larger sizes are obviously our better-selling sizes, but this is also due to the lack of competition in the sector, which is the whole reason we started the Curve Project. We get loads of great feedback about our quality and fit from all size customers.

What do brands need to think about when it comes to marketing to plus-size women?  

Our focus is simple, we want to show our customers how good they can look wearing any styles from the Curve Project brands. We want women to look great, feel comfortable and confident, irrelevant of shape or size.

So far, we have shown our product on various models ranging from sizes 12 to 18 with all different ethnic backgrounds, some with skinny legs and bigger boobs, some with bigger thighs and bigger bums, some with extra tummy.

So far, we have shown our product on various models ranging from sizes 12 to 18 with all different ethnic backgrounds, some with skinny legs and bigger boobs, some with bigger thighs and bigger bums, some with extra tummy.

One thing all the models have in common at Curve Project is that they represent the diversity of the curvy community.

Our customers are loving that they can shop on our website and relate to the model wearing the garment who may be a size 16 and think, ‘Yeah I can look good in this too.’

How has the plus-size sector changed in the last few years?  

I don’t think it has changed enough, that’s why the Curve Project was created. Our goal is to shake up the sector and most importantly and give the customers more choice. I am super-excited to say the customers are finding us, they are supporting us, which is very exciting for a new business. So it’s early days, but a bright future is on the horizon for Curve Project based on customer reactions so far.

Rob Godwin

Director and head of operations

Lovehoney Australia

What are the size ranges like at Lovehoney?

We offer an extensive sizing range, from an Australian size 6 to size 28. As well as fitted lingerie, we also offer a wide range of ‘One Size’ products in a regular, plus-size and curve. These items are designed to fit and flatter and provide an easy solution to the shopping experience.

We recently launched an exciting new range, Enchanted, which introduces more cup sizes, meaning we can offer our customers a greater range of options to ensure the perfect fit and to cater for all different body shapes. To help our customers choose the right lingerie for them (or their partner) we have created a range of guides, filled with tips and advice for choosing not only the correct size, but also style to ensure they look and feel amazing.

Why is diversity important to a sex toy retailer like Lovehoney? 

As a worldwide sexual wellbeing brand and the leading voice in sexual happiness, we aim to appeal to people from across the globe, not only with our products, but also how we deliver our messaging. Our customers come from a variety of different backgrounds, with different levels of experience and a huge variety of preferences so we need to ensure we can speak  to them all. This is the normality of the market – there is no ‘one size fits all’ in such a multicultural environment. 

As the sexual happiness people, we strongly believe that sex and sexual happiness is for everyone and we try to convey this in our messaging. It’s not just looking at a diverse range of sizes and body shapes, but also being diverse in our representation of sexual preferences, ethnicities and kinks to encourage people to be sex positive. Your ‘everyday’ couple (or single person) doesn’t fit into a stereotypical box, so diversity for us is in recognising that no two people are the same and celebrating different forms of sexual expression. And as long as it makes someone happy (and no one unhappy) it works for us! We are proud of what we do and want that same confidence and pride to be reflected in our customers.

This can be seen in our recent campaign for our new wet-look lingerie line, Fierce. With this campaign, we wanted to make our customers feel empowered and confident in expressing their sexual desires, while still maintaining our focus on sexual happiness. To achieve this, we worked with three sex- and body-positive models, alongside a wide range of social media influencers from across the globe, who represent the diversity of our customers.

What are some of the considerations designers need to think about when  creating plus-size lingerie? 

We are lucky to have a very talented in-house designer, Heather Mercer, at Lovehoney who has a wealth of industry experience gained from working for high-end and high street retailers. As we do for any type of lingerie, we look at trends and fashions, researching the best fabrics and colours. In collaboration with our NPD team, Heather spends time getting to know our customers and their needs. This includes reading reviews and feedback to understand what our customers want to ensure we are getting it right. For plus-size lingerie, we always consider if the fabric and elastics are fit for purpose, which do vary from the base sizes.

Achieving the right fit is a crucial part of what Heather and her team do. All samples are fitted in-house with a variety of fitting models that range from sizes 10 to 26 to ensure each style looks fabulous on each body shape. We know how you feel in your lingerie can be a huge confidence boost, and we take that very seriously.

How would you describe the plus-size lingerie sector at the moment? Are there many choices out there? 

Globally, we can see companies are starting to introduce a wider range of plus-size lingerie to appeal to fuller-figured women but there is still a long way to go. In Australia in particular, there is certainly a hole in the market for luxury and affordable plus-size lingerie and as a result, plus-size lingerie is one of our biggest growth areas.

There are some really beautiful, luxury brands out there but they are targeted at your size 4 to 10 models – not very representative of the average Australian women who have a dress size between 14 and 16.

For so long, people have always associated lingerie for curvy women with unflattering and ‘practical’ styles, and we wanted to change that. Why shouldn’t plus-size lingerie be just as beautiful as your size 8s and 10s? We wanted to ensure we have styles that complement our customers, no matter what their size and have worked hard to design sexy lingerie styles that come in both base and plus options.

Is it important that all the lingerie brands that you stock are also plus-size? 

I think it is important to remember that we want products suitable for everyone, so we stock both plus and base size lingerie. We always try to work with other brands that share our vision and values, and that is making a happy and enjoyable sex life available to everyone. We look at customer feedback and reviews very carefully when deciding which third-party brands to work with and use this information to help inform what products and brands we stock.

Tell me about the influencers and brand ambassadors you choose to reflect the diversity of your customers. 

We aim to connect with a range of ambassadors reflective of our customer base. We have a huge focus on both body positivity and a sex-positive mindset and only work with influencers and ambassadors who share this view. Social media has provided us with a great platform to work with ‘real’ people and this is an area where we continue to grow – we’re always open to working with new people. It’s a very exciting time for the industry.

Paul Elsibai

Founder

Australian Brands Alliance

Tell me about your brands that offer an extended size range. What is the size range?

All of our brands offer what many would consider ‘extended’ size ranges. Typically, this means that all brands produce ranges from size 6 to size 16 across all styles. Then, based on an algorithm to determine demand, within a selection of our brands, we will produce either up to a size 18 or a size 20. In the past, we had produced up to a size 24, but since demand wasn’t there, we stopped doing this.

Why did you decide to offer extended sizes for your brands? 

We always believed that the brands should be size inclusive, so it was essentially a given that we would produce across a wider size than is typical for a fashion brand. We actually started off by offering the brands under the title ‘Tussah Curve’, ‘Calli Curve’ etc, but felt that this was not ultimately the best inclusive approach, so we now do the size range in the respective size range, without using the Curve moniker. 

What are some of the challenges of producing a plus-size range? 

There are many challenges.

1. The pattern grading is not the same for sizes above 16, so styles have to be sampled twice and fit on different models. This obviously costs more and takes more time. 
2. The cost of producing sizes above 16 is significantly higher, because of fabric consumption and increased time to manufacture. The product also weighs more so costs more to ship. Despite these extra costs, the final garment is sold for the same price.
3. Carrying a wider size range requires more warehouse space.
4. The product must be photographed on two models, also increasing costs.

What do you have to consider when designing for a curvy customer? 

We only consider demand and use our software to determine this. We will produce a style in whatever size range our insights tell us so that we avoid unnecessary production and waste.

What is your opinion on how the fashion industry is going in terms of embracing size diversity? What would you like to see change? 

I think different brands and retailers have their own set of unique challenges when it comes to embracing size diversity. For example, a [bricks-and-mortar] retailer might not have the floor space to allow them to carry a wider size range of product. Another brand might not have the technical know-how to design and develop them.

Overall though, the industry is definitely becoming more aware of the issue and is developing unique strategies to address the need to become more size diverse and inclusive.