11 Honoré aims to fill the gap in plus-size luxury e-commerce
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London - Online luxury retailers, such as Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, and Matchesfashion have managed to carve out a name for themselves in the industry thanks to their unique fashion offering of high-end brands. However, although these premium fashion destinations succeeded in offering a wide range of designer and luxury brands and designers when it came to their sizing offering, they remained rather limited - like much of the higher-end part of the fashion market. However as waistlines around the world continue to grow, as does the demand for plus-size luxury fashion.
Enter 11 Honoré, the high-end fashion retailer exclusively catering to those US size 10 to 20 (UK size 14 to 24). 11 Honoré, which officially launched earlier this week, offers a number of premium designer brands, including ready-to-wear collections from Prabal Gurung, Marchesa, Zac Posen and Michael Kors. The plus-size premium fashion e-tailer, which sits alongside navabi, is the brainchild of co-founders Kathryn Retzer and Patrick Herning. Herning, a former executive at HL Group and founder of influencer and marketing engagement firm PMH Partners, combined his experience with brand building with Retzer own experience in fashion editorial, previously working for Allure, Vogue, and Town & Country, to create 11 Honoré.
11 Honoré offers luxury plus-size fashion
The two friends decided to team up last year to develop a site which offered a curated selection of plus-size fashion directly from the runway after spotting the gap in the market. “For the first time the plus-sized woman is getting the exact same option,” says 11 Honoré co-founder Patrick Herning to Business of Fashion. The luxury e-commerce launch comes as the market for plus-size designer fashion continues to remain underdeveloped, despite the fact that the average female size in the United States is size 16 according to the NPD Group. Although some higher-end brands fear that by offering an extended sizing range could put off their current, smaller size core clientele, others note it does not tie in with their overall brand image.
However, data from NPD also shows that sales of women’s plus-size fashion grew twice as fast as overall fashion sales in the US in 2016, reaching 21.4 billion dollars, underlining the untapped potential that lies within the plus-size market. Which is where 11 Honoré comes in. In addition, unlike other plus-size specialists, which tend to charge more for their garments as the production of a larger garment can be more complex and use more materials, 11 Honoré offers high-end and designers pieces at the same price of their ‘normal’ sized counterparts. “We know [the plus-size luxury consumer] is spending money in other categories,” added Herning. He noted that a number of the designer brands offered at 11 Honoré have been serving plus-size consumers for a while now, through their special order service.
“We are showing her, for the first time, that you can be aspirational and this is where you can find it."
Images: 11 Honoré website