Kate Spade Is Missing The Plus Size Market. Eloquii Collaboration Fixes That.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) plus-size women's fashion brand Eloquii has just dropped a capsule collection in collaboration with Tapestry-owned Kate Spade.

Priced from $99 up to $499 for a feather-sleeve coat, it gives Eloquii's size 14 and up fashion-forward customers access to Kate Spade's inimitable style that they can't get directly from the brand.

While Kate Spade offers up to XXL sizes in some styles, the Kate Spade size chart only goes up to a 36-inch waist circumference. That is still out of bounds of the average American woman who has a waist of 39 inches, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics .

The waist size of Eloquii fashions starts at 37 inches in size 14 and extends to 55 inches in size 28, with some styles ranging up to size 32 at 63 inches.

The Eloquii x kate spade new york collection is styled right for holiday celebrations – dressier plus-sized looks being what Eloquii is known for – but will only be available directly from the Eloquii website.

However, Kate Spade is lending Eloquii marketing support by hosting a New York City event to introduce the collection to Eloquii's local top-tier customers first and in two weeks, they are off to Los Angeles for another showing at the Kate Spade store in the Century City Mall.

Having just dropped on Thursday this week, Eloquii customers are over the moon about the collection, as is Eloquii founder and brand lead Julie Carnevale and her team.

"We're doing Black-Friday kind of results on the website today," she shared in our call that day, as she noted that Kate Spade is a brand that consistently registers as one Eloquii customers love for accessories but has been off limits to her in apparel.

That's something the Kate Spade team had been hearing too. Their plus-sized customers want to participate with the brand more fully but couldn't. Now they can.

"With a shared commitment to women's empowerment and the celebration of style, we're thrilled to bring our signature aesthetic to the Eloquii community, together creating a collection that not only looks beautiful but feels amazing to wear," Kate Spade's vice president North America wholesale, global licensing and collaborations Charlotte Warshaw said in a statement.

"Fashion should spark joy and this capsule does just that," she continued. That joy will continue through Valentine's Day when the two brands drop another dress-up party collection, and Carnevale is hopeful it can carry on.

"The synergy between the brands and our groups are great. Both Eloquii and Kate Spade are interested in moving forward as long as it makes financial sense, and so far, things are looking great," she said.

More Than Cutting A Larger Pattern

To translate Kate Spade's design aesthetic to plus-size, it took more than scaling up the patterns. The Kate Spade team presented Eloquii's with its holiday collection, showing the colors, print, fabric and textures that it would include.

Then the Eloquii team took that as inspiration to capture the look and feel but in styles and silhouettes that work for Eloquii's customer.

"We didn't just do a carbon copy of whatever was being done in straight size. Our teams collaborated together to leverage what we know about the actual fits and blocks that are proven for the Eloquii customer," she said.

The result is a collection that tells "the same story" as the Kate Spade designs, but are slightly different in silhouette. And happily for the Eloquii customer, the prices are more affordable than one would expect at Kate Spade, though its print pleated gown sells for $499.

Yesenia Leigh, vice president of design at Eloquii shared, "Designing the collaboration of Eloquii and kate spade new york was the perfect fusion of two distinct yet complementary worlds – blending Eloquii's impeccable fit with kate spade new york's signature prints and playful sense of style."

Eloquii's Bumpy Corporate Ride

The plus-sized fashion market has tripped up any number of regular-sized brands, Old Navy's recent "Bodequality" size-inclusive launch being a prime example. Carnevale has been studying the plus-sized fashion market for more than a decade to understand the designs she wants that both fit and flatter her.

While working at The Limited, she was tasked to develop an extended-sizes division to reengage lapsed customers who effectively were "fired" by the brand if they outgrew its then size 12 limit. It launched the Eloquii brand in 2011 but after The Limited hit the skids, it decided to focus on its core business.

Instead of folding and going back to what she used to do at The Limited, Carnevale and her core team decided to strike out on their own and buy the brand. "I never saw so much opportunity in my life," she observed.

Current Eloquii CEO Mariah Chase joined the company shortly thereafter and helped the company raise some $42 million in venture capital to grow the business.

After four years of going it alone, Eloquii caught the eye of Bonobos founder Andy Dunn after he sold his company to Walmart and joined it as head of its digital brands. He spearheaded Walmart's acquisition of Eloquii for a reported $100 million in 2018.

But then after the pandemic disruption, Walmart changed strategy and started selling off specialty DTC brands it had acquired, like Bonobos and Eloquii.

FullBeauty Brands quickly snapped up Eloquii last year for an undisclosed sum to fill a gap in its "digital mall" to appeal to a younger, more fashion-forward customer.

Eloquii Finds A Home That Fits

FullBeauty was founded in 1901 with a mission to serve the plus-sized customer so Eloquii has finally found a home that is a perfect fit.

FullBeauty boosts revenues in excess of $1 billion and has a customer list five million strong. Its other brands include Cuup, Dia & Co, Catherines, June + Vie and most recently it added Avenue to its holdings .

FullBeauty assesses the total available market (TAM) to be an $81 billion opportunity that is growing three-times faster than the regular-sized women's apparel market. And according to Statista , over 20% of Millennial women and 14% of her younger GenZ siblings consider inclusive-sizing personally important to them.

Just like the fashion market doesn't seem to know how to serve the plus-sized customer, many established fashion companies don't seem to know how to manage brands that serve her either. Clearly FullBeauty knows both to do both.

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