Archive for September, 2010
There’s a Plus-Size Lingerie War Going On
September 09, 2010
Every once in a while, you read an article, and you just can’t get it out of your mind.That happened for me last month with the New York Times article, Plus-Size Wars.
It was a rather lengthy article about the on-going debate over skinny models and body image. But, several data points in the article resonated with me as it relates to the challenge we have at HerRoom helping and satisfying our customers who buy the larger bra and panty sizes.
Here are the current statistics. The average clothing size for women in America is a size 14. The average American woman weighs 164.7 lbs. 64% of American women are overweight, with more than 1/3 being in the obese category. And, here is the real kicker: plus-size clothing only represents 18% of total revenue in women’s clothing – and it’s been fairly constant over the past 20 years. So, more than half of all American women fall into this plus-size category, and are buying less than 20% of all clothing. And this statistic was down to 10% in the years 2008 and 2009.
The article then went into a very interesting explanation of the complicated challenges clothing makers have in trying to clothe the plus-size market. We all know that body proportions change as we gain weight. Manufacturers, over the years, have been able to very predictably guage where those changes are from sizes 2 to 12 and how much of a measurement increase there is between sizes. A pattern maker can take a base pattern and make subtle measurement changes in certain spots on a pattern to come up with the other sizes for a particular garment. This is called pattern grading. This technique is so predictable that many of the grading changes date back to the 16th century. But, here is the big but… after a size 14, there is no predictability or certainty where and how the dimensions change. We women simply get fat differently when we get up into these sizes.
So, here are the plus-size challenges for clothing manufacturers:
1. They can’t grade up patterns to create the larger sizes.
2. They are forced to choose if the plus-size body they are going to design for is trunk, breast, or hip-heavy.
3. It’s difficult to find the right fit model for each size they are trying to make clothing for.
The lion’s share of poor reviews on HerRoom go to bras that come in plus sizes. My team and I work so hard to provide our customers with the best fitting information possible on each bra that we offer for sale. We read customer reviews, talk to the manufacturers and go to retail stores to get as much fit information on our bras as we can. We then post our fit findings on our product pages and I personally include them in my ‘Tomima Tips.’ So, when we see a comment from a plus-size woman that our fitting information didn’t work for her, we all get very frustrated.
But now we have new understanding. Take women that wear a 48F bra, for example. They are not all alike – one can have particularly large arms, another can have a narrow ribcage, another may hold a lot of her weight in her back. It’s really impossible to find a universal bra that will fit everyone.
Let me close this post by saying that my team and I will continue to root out and communicate to you all the bra fitting comments we learn. We are now just going to be smarter about asking better questions to give better fit advice to the plus size bra wearers out there.
Find Plus Size lingerie at HerRoom in these departments:
Plus-Size Lingerie
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Posted by Tomima at 11:21am
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Help! My Favorite Bra’s Been Discontinued… Now What?
September 01, 2010
Been there? I think every woman has at least once in her lifetime. One of the questions I’m most asked once I’ve been outed as being in the lingerie business is "Why did my favorite bra get discontinued?"
Generally, there are 5 reasons a bra style gets shelved.
1. Lackluster Sales – It’s simple economics. If the bra is not selling well, a manufacturer will stop making it.
2. A Major Department Store Stops Buying It – The lingerie industry is ruled by the major department store chains like Federated, Macy’s, Kohl’s Nordstroms, etc. Not all of them carry the same bra styles. In fact, they like to have styles exclusive to them, or ones that not all stores have. So, when one of these major chains decides not to carry the style for whatever reason, the manufacturer will discontinue it – regardless of other smaller stores and websites that might be selling the style well. Simply put, it’s the Big Gorilla symptom.
3. High Return Rate – If the bra style has a high return rate, neither the manufacturer or the retailer wants the style. This is one of the reasons that so few front closure bras are on the market. They have a high return rate because they don’t have enough adjustability like a back closure bra, so they get returned because they stretch out and women can’t make them tighter. Also, that front closure clip breaks and limits the support that can be created in the center of the bra.
4. No Longer Fits The Manufacturers Design Direction – I have seen fabulous selling designs be abruptly discontinued by a manufacturer. It’s crazy and makes no sense, but when asked, the manufacturer will say things like "It’s the only remaining piece in the collection" or "We are designing in a different direction" or "We want to make a new statement." Here are some examples. Olga bras (made by Warnaco) decided that they only wanted to make bras in C cup sizes and larger. They had several terrific styles in A and B cup sizes. But, they decided to let them go. To this day HerRoom gets inquiries from former Olga customers asking where their B cup sizes are. Chantelle is another company that discontinues great styles every year. It’s a little more understandable with this brand because they consider themselves very fashion forward, with European styling, so they want to have fresh new styles to offer each season.
5. Materials used for the bra can no longer be purchased – Most lingerie manufacturers are very specific on this point. If they can’t get the exact fabric or lace, they will discontinue the style rather than find an alternate fabric. Over the years, they have learned that if it isn’t exact, the customer knows and gets mad. It’s better to come back with a new style number using the new fabric than to risk trying to pull a switch on the customer. Wacoal is particularly sensitive to this. One of their best sellers had to be discontinued because the lace manufacturer changed the design just slightly. Because it wasn’t exact, Wacoal chose to lose sales rather than disappoint their customers.
So, knowing all this, what’s a girl to do when this happens? Allow me to put on my Super Hero cape and come to the rescue. For the last 5 years, I’ve asked my staff to figure out what style to recommend as a replacement once we hear that a bra is being discontinued. Not every discontinued bra has a close replacement, but when there is, we document it. We then put this information on our site. So, if you key in the manufacturer name and the style number of a discontinued bra style (or panty or shapewear style for that matter) into our search box, most of the time you will see the recommended replacement styles. As an example go to HerRoom and type this into the search box:
Warners 2015
First, we tell you that it was discontinued in August of 2008. This way you know it’s been gone for two years, so trying to hunt it down in any store will probably be futile. And then we give you similar styles that might be a replacement option for you.
Now, truth be told, you probably are not going to like the similar items because they are not EXACTLY like your old bra. But, my goal is to at least give you a starting point and make your search for your new favorite bra a little quicker and less painful. Let me know if you like this feature.
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Posted by Tomima at 10:53am
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