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Fashion to Figure's Kaplan on Growing Plus-Sized Market (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: This is a Bloomberg Business Flash from Bloomberg World Headquarters.
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Flash. You're listening to Taking Stock with Kathleen
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  Speaker 1: pim Fox on Bloomberg Radio. Fashion fashion for women and
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  Speaker 1: teenagers sized at twelve to twenty six. That's the focus
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  Speaker 1: of Fashion to Figure. It focuses exclusively on women's plus
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  Speaker 1: size clothing and related accessories, and here to tell us
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  Speaker 1: more is the co founder and chief executive Michael Kathleen. Michael,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for coming in, Thanks for having me here. Tell
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  Speaker 1: us a little bit about your background and how you
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  Speaker 1: came to create Fashion to Figure. Well, it's it's a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a mixed combination of um wanting to continue
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  Speaker 1: a great legacy that my family started in intern of
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  Speaker 1: the last century when my great grandmother, owned by the
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  Speaker 1: name of Lane Bryant, created special sized clothing and really
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  Speaker 1: pioneered the category bringing fashion to the figure. Are our
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  Speaker 1: company name really draws its history from a famous quote
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  Speaker 1: of hers which was never asked a woman to conform
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  Speaker 1: their figure to fashion. Always bring fashion to the figure.
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  Speaker 1: And when I was at in graduate school, I saw
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  Speaker 1: a great opportunity to kind of modernize the retail experience
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  Speaker 1: or the shopping experience for this consumer, and so my
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  Speaker 1: brother and I literally started the proverbial single store that
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  Speaker 1: we ran ourselves every day for a year and a
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  Speaker 1: half and a decade later, we now sell our our
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  Speaker 1: very contemporary fashion product and five channels, um our own stores,
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  Speaker 1: digital marketplaces online at Fashion to Figure dot Com, through
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  Speaker 1: wholesale partners, and through new disruptive um subscription box companies,
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  Speaker 1: and really what we do is provide up to the minute,
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  Speaker 1: very fast fashion trends across a very contemporary on trend
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  Speaker 1: lifestyle that people can really forget about being special size
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  Speaker 1: or size related. They're really getting access to the latest
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  Speaker 1: fashion that that really anybody would deem as contemporary. Now
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  Speaker 1: your background, you worked at Lazard, Your brother Nicholas was
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  Speaker 1: previously at Sacks. What was it like going from the
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  Speaker 1: banking industry into the retail business that already Well, it's
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  Speaker 1: very it's very different. I mean, I think working on
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  Speaker 1: wall streets very different than main street. And I think
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  Speaker 1: in our case, um my brother and I brought a
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  Speaker 1: great combination of skills, his with the retail background in
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  Speaker 1: mind with more of a finance background. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: that either of us would be here without the combination
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  Speaker 1: of those skills coming together. But for me, it certainly
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  Speaker 1: was an adjustment. But it's much more rewarding work now
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  Speaker 1: with all the people that work inside of our business
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  Speaker 1: being really both our customers and our employees who we
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  Speaker 1: call ft F family members, seeing how real hard working
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  Speaker 1: people are out there in shopping malls across America and
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  Speaker 1: shopping and consuming American products and you know, really creating
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  Speaker 1: the economy. It's very different to be out there among
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  Speaker 1: the people and serving them than it is behind a
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  Speaker 1: desk in Rockefeller Center and analyzing reports. Now you mentioned customers,
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  Speaker 1: you mentioned your employees. Tell us about your vendors, because
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  Speaker 1: that makes you a slightly different retail company in that
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  Speaker 1: you don't create the products yourself. You work with I
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  Speaker 1: guess over a hundred vendors to bring those products to market.
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  Speaker 1: We actually do create the product ourselves. Basically, we Um.
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  Speaker 1: We bring hundreds of styles across basic dressing and casual categories,
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  Speaker 1: so that our customers literally every time they come to
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  Speaker 1: our website or every time they come to our store
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  Speaker 1: can see a new dress, a new top. They can
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  Speaker 1: always get a basic item of any need or or
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  Speaker 1: in any for any area of their life in a
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  Speaker 1: different color, in an updated, you know, style or contemporary trend.
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  Speaker 1: We create all that stuff with our own designers, and
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  Speaker 1: we have terrific um manufacturing partners all across the world.
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  Speaker 1: They can manufacture things anywhere from four tough you know,
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  Speaker 1: sixteen weeks for us and get a very fast flow
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  Speaker 1: of product to the floor, so that our customers always
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  Speaker 1: see that newness, that freshness of fashion. At fashion and
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  Speaker 1: Figure dot com, for example, you'll see new things there
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  Speaker 1: every single day and you'll rarely see an item more
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  Speaker 1: than you know, sixty five dollars. Where you mentioned the
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  Speaker 1: price point and I just want to offer detail right
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  Speaker 1: dresses around fifty dollars, tops around thirty five dollars, in
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  Speaker 1: jeans retailing for about forty dollars that we we think
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  Speaker 1: that what our innovation in the market has been has
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  Speaker 1: been to offer very up to the minute trends at
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  Speaker 1: a quality and price point that is has a combination
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  Speaker 1: of that fashion, quality, price point, speed of flow that
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  Speaker 1: is not matched anywhere in the large size market. We
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  Speaker 1: think that we're the fastest moving assortment of on trend
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  Speaker 1: fashion at a quality and price point that our customers
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  Speaker 1: can have so they can always feel great with us,
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  Speaker 1: looking great and really with up to the minute items
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  Speaker 1: across any of these channel and touch points that they
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  Speaker 1: have with us. Now, while we started as a store business,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we're we're very much into the every aspect
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  Speaker 1: of the new economy now, whether it be a box
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  Speaker 1: subscription partner that we have, whether it be our own store,
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  Speaker 1: whether it be you know, digital market places or third
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  Speaker 1: party brand of vendors or any of that. What's your
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  Speaker 1: estimate for how big the marketplace is for plus size fashion. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it's a very fast and dynamic run market today, UM
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  Speaker 1: and I think this is one of the opportunities which
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  Speaker 1: is why a lot of people are jumping on the
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  Speaker 1: bandwagon or you know, dusting off the kind of UM
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  Speaker 1: brand story of businesses and vertically expanding into the spaces.
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  Speaker 1: Because it's about an eighteen billion dollar market for apparel
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  Speaker 1: in today's in the US economy. Today, it's about seventy
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  Speaker 1: million women in the United States economy, depending upon how
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  Speaker 1: you slice the numbers that are wearing above sized fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: so it's really one in three women in America. So
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  Speaker 1: really to call it a specialty market is a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a misnomer. Having said that, there's a real paucity
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  Speaker 1: of suppliers and retailers serving that market, and that's why
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  Speaker 1: many people are entering in the market today, whether it
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  Speaker 1: be teen retailers, whether it be department stores, whether it
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  Speaker 1: be online startup companies or others. So a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people going into this market and you know, I know
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  Speaker 1: it's a little counterintuitive for us to say, but we're
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  Speaker 1: happy that our customers have more choices. Um, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we're really a terrific fashion option for them at a
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  Speaker 1: compelling price and value. Now, Michael, just last point where
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  Speaker 1: I know you're raised about four hundred thousand dollars from
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  Speaker 1: Angel investors. I believe to your first store when we started, right,
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  Speaker 1: We've raised significant amounts of money after that, and we're
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  Speaker 1: you know, we operate in eight states today with our
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  Speaker 1: own stores, a global website, third party marketplaces, subscription box partners,
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  Speaker 1: and traditional wholesale partners. So we've come a long way
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  Speaker 1: since that first story that we borrowed one or dollars for.
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  Speaker 1: I want to congratulate you and thanks very much for
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  Speaker 1: coming in and telling your story. Appreciate being here. Look
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  Speaker 1: forward to seeing you soon. All right. Michael Kaplan is
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  Speaker 1: the chief executive and the co founder of Fashion to Figure.
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  Speaker 1: This is taking Stock. I'm pim Fox, my co host
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  Speaker 1: Kathleen Hayes, Thank you for listening. Our producer Sam Lenga,
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