For far too long, the plus-size market has been forgotten when it comes to style and beauty. Take mainstream media at almost any given point in history, and what you will inevitably find is a mark of thin, white models with seemingly perfect skin and hair teaching the world what beauty is. While it’s been a true fight to ensure things such as your socio-economic level, your race, or even your gender, don’t prohibit your ability to be a part of the industry, much of fashion still has a lot of catching up to do with plus-size and curvier women.
The average American woman is a size 16, yet if you walk into any department store and you will find the pickings slim for many sizes past an eight. Brands such as Universal Standard and Eloquii have stepped up to the forefront of the needs for plus-size, presenting us with fast fashion alternatives for thicker girls, but a still untapped area of concern falls in luxury. Do people think that plus-size can’t want designer? Well, that’s where 11 Honoré comes in, a brand geared towards creating a more inclusive space for all to enjoy luxury and high-end wear.
As a woman who is a size 12-14, even I find the skimmed aisles and lookbooks disconcerting, especially when we see that ‘sample’ sizing is still a thing. I spoke with 11 Honoré’s co-founder, Patrick Herning, on the brand mission, what’s to come in the plus marketplace, and what designers need to get right.
While the plus-size market has continued to expand, the plus-size market for luxury is still significantly lacking. What ignited a fire under you to start 11 Honoré?
70% of the population is a size 14 or above, and the plus-size fashion industry is worth, conservatively, $21B. This is a significant audience that has been underserved and marginalized by an entire industry. There is a misconception that this customer isn’t willing to invest in luxury fashion – but the truth is, she hasn’t been able to, not that she hasn’t wanted to.
11 Honoré was founded from a very personal place where I wanted to do something disruptive in the space and create something for this consumer who has been severely underserved for years.
Today, we proudly offer the 11 Honoré woman wants the same shopping experience and options as her friend, sister, and colleague.
You’ve only been around for a little over a year. How has the landscape of plus-size fashion changed in that year and how has the brand grown and evolved in that time?
Since launch we have also made strides in creating engaging touch points with our customer – from launching Page 11, our editorial platform that features profiles and inspiration that feel true to our woman to hosting trunk shows in city throughout the US giving our customer a chance to engage with the brand and offerings first-hand.
The most humbling moments of the last several months, were our NYFW activations in September. While there has been great strides of inclusivity on the runway, the presence of plus-size influencers in the front row is severely lacking. This past season, we partnered with brands such as Brandon Maxwell, Chromat, MILLY and Christian Siriano, among others to dress and have influencers such as Tess Holliday and Denise Bidot attend their shows.
We also hosted an intimate breakfast during NYFW with some of the most vocal tastemakers within the space from Nicolette Mason and Lauren Chan to Kellie Brown— which inspired Brown’s #FatAtFashionWeek.
Overall, the industry has had some positive moments in 2018: Universal Standard opened a retail location selling clothing from sizes 00 – 40. We’ve seen Nordstrom decide to begin selling plus-size clothing at 100 of their store locations. However, there’s so much more the fashion industry needs to do in terms of representation of women across size categories and we will continue to disrupt the space and further the conversation whether it be through our product offerings or activations.
How do you go about choosing who to work with? Have you received push back from designers who don’t want to cater to or create content for plus-size women?
We take the responsibility of dressing our customer and making her feel beautiful incredibly seriously – when I was starting the brand, we had immediate interest from brands such as Prabal Gurung, Brandon Maxwell, Christian Siriano, Zac Posen and Monique Lhuillier, amongst others. From there we started engaging brands who we knew that offered extended sizes whether it be through custom orders or trunk shows.
That said, our best stories are the ones where we have helped designers who want to offer their collection to this customer, have no experience creating garments in extended sizing – such as Phillip Lim or Baja East.
11 Honoré takes the responsibility of cost and labor of finding experts who can grade and pattern existing designs for this customer and keeping the cost of the garment the same as the straight sizes.
Given our impressive growth over the last year, which I think speaks volumes to what we are doing and the need for inclusivity within the fashion industry, it is imperative that we listen to our customer and take her feedback and ensure it’s represented in our offerings – whether it be buying deeper into a designer or type of garment, or re-working something that maybe isn’t quite right.
Many of the brands you work with have taken a stand for the need for inclusivity of body sizes in the fashion industry. How important is it to upkeep the mission of plus-size inclusiveness to the brand and what message do you hope it sends to other brands, designers, and people out there?
It is incredibly important that we are fulfilling our mission of not only providing this woman with the best selection of luxury fashion in one place, but that the fit and quality is never compromised.
We recognized not long after launching that 11 Honoré needed to evolve into a true community where women can engage with each other through beautiful and powerful editorial content featuring designers and industry tastemakers. We launched Page 11, our editorial content hub, a few months ago and have featured powerful, stylish advocates including Rose Barney, Emmé, and Nicolette Mason, covered the issues around the Netflix program “Insatiable,” addressed how to shop for a wedding gown as a plus-size woman, and so much more.
Women everywhere should feel included, beautiful and confident no matter what size they are; so, whether we are doing that through offering her the clothes she wants or providing a resource that provides inspiration that she can relate to, we are doing our job.
What do you hope to achieve with 11 Honoré in the next five years? What are some of the next plans and steps?
The past year has been an absolute whirlwind and I am so incredibly proud of what we have been able to accomplish. Looking ahead our goal remains the same – providing women beautiful options that make them feel like their best selves and continuing to evolve the conversation surrounding size and body diversity.
We have some exciting new launches in the pipeline – from collaborations to product extensions that we can’t wait to introduce and share!
