They did have great classics and essentials though. The hero pieces? The decadent frocks? Nope.
With not having a lot online and nothing in-store, the plus size options were not the same as our straight sized sisters. Just because they may not have had anything in store doesn’t mean they couldn’t have had a lot more online to work with. Limited options in plus sizes White House Black Market Paisley-Print High-Low Maxi Dress
With new players come new rules to the business and marketing game- One we know too well… 4. There are no “If you build it, they will come” opportunities. How can a business grow, if your audience does not know what is going on with you? In this day and age of plus size fashion, you have a little bit more competition. No pitches, emails, information about the new, unless we stumbled across it… nothing. No more engagement across the community, that we could see. We had a FB live announcing this news, thanks to outreach from the brand, but after that… nothing. To go along with number 2 (but also a point in itself), if a brand has created a collection that their audience is excited about, they need to promote that collection to reach the public! Without any promotions, not only is that appreciation missing, but also the excitement of the brand. No Promotion after the launch of plus sizes If we are not in store (such is the case here) then your online visuals have to be only that more impactful. With their campaigns, we have not seen any plus size women included at all! The challenge with this is that companies need to show us that they want our business and that they see us. However, we did not see this afterwards nor did we see them include plus sizes with their advertisements and promotions. The visuals used in this article? From their launch lookbook. White House Black Market missed this opportunity to kill the game with their visuals and promotions.
And it doesn’t make sense this omission, especially as you have so many brands now making a definitive footprint for plus size options in store: Old Navy, Target, and even Nordstrom! We wanted that same opportunity as other women, but they didn’t give us much to work with. When we heard the news about White House Black Market, we were hyped. We want to touch and feel, and most definitely try on what we’re buying, just like everyone else. Shopping online isn’t always a plus girl’s favorite thing to do. But it is a whole other frustration when you tell us that we are available online only. It is one thing when you have a company launch plus sizes… cool.
With all the excitement of their collection coming out and being available, we were all ready to pay when we got into the store. How White House Black Market Missed the Mark 1.
There was so much promise here… BUT, this did get our wheels spinning, thinking about how their business missed a few key opportunities, for the curvy community. Why? Not only that, but absolutely NO ONE at WHBM has talked about it.
Though there were a couple missed opportunities with the Plus collection, we were happy to get chic professional workwear and casual wear like velvet jackets, sequined tops, embellished denim and luxe sweaters! You know, an elevated polished look! And! We all had our money ready to to shop the latest spring options and then… poof! Their plus size department vanished. We were so excited when they launched WHBM Plus, a brand which was already known for its upscale contemporary clothing for the modern and professional women over 30. We loved them, they filled the hole for plus size wear to work clothing. We’ve received comments, emails, inbox messages… girl, we had no clue. Did you know that as loudly as White House Black Market announced plus sizes, they quietly closed shop in the plus size department? Yeah… we did not know this either.