Bright Lights and Gwynnie Bee

Sorry for the relative silence here last week. I had good reason though – I was in New York City! NYC is one of those places I used to want to live when growing up as a gal in Kentucky, but being able to go up there every once in a while is a great balance between Kentucky ease and city streets.

And not only was I back in NYC, I was there meeting with the ah-may-zing ladies of Gwynnie Bee. Not sure what Gwynnie Bee is? The short answer: Netflix for plus size clothes. Here’s some more information on a previous post of mine.

Gwynnie Bee Clothes — I may or may not be blogging from one of these racks of gorgeous clothes. I could have just stayed there all day.

It was so great to put faces to the names of the people who have opened up so much plus size fashion to so many women. Personally, clothes give confidence at any size, so putting on a new arrival from Gwynnie Bee is a great boost. I realized how essential Gwynnie Bee is to my wardrobe these days when I went to pack for my trip and realized 80% of it were Gwynnie Bee items!

Gwynnie Bee rack — …or perhaps I’m hiding in this rack…

After getting off an early flight, I went to the Gwynnie Bee office to meet everyone, including their mascot, Mable.

she's ridiculously cute — she’s ridiculously cute

We then headed to something I was insanely excited about: Fashion Coterie. It’s basically a huge buyers market for clothes. I think there were over 1000 brands there displaying their fall items. There was a list of about 30 brands that were listed under “Plus Size” only to find out after hiking around the Javitz center that none of them appeared to bring any of their plus clothes with them. What the hell?!? We tried to speak to various people about it, and made some calls, only to be met with confusion about “Why did you think plus would be here?” Um, because your book SAYS SO!

It was frustrating to think that there are designers at the show who have plus sizes, but don’t bring it out for whatever reason. Or as one designer told us, they don’t know yet what they’re doing for plus, so they just brought the regular sizes. Plus shouldn’t be an afterthought. It just seems crazy that if you want to sell plus clothes, list it in a market with “plus size” listed, that you would have some sort of clue what the plus size options would be. The people at the booths were pretty clueless as well, so it’s not like we could get a good description of what to expect. Whomp whomp.

Then of course as soon as I got home late Thursday, I saw the news that eloquii is trying to get acquired or to go away after a year of trying. This is really upsetting to me because they did have some great items. Sure, quality, fit, and customer service issues were a problem at times, but they offered a good transition between Torrid and Lane Bryant. (Read their announcement on their Facebook page). Good plus size fashion shouldn’t be hard to find, yet from Coterie to eloquii, we seem to have lost our way.

The great news is that Gwynnie Bee hasn’t lost their way. In fact, they just celebrated their one year anniversary! To celebrate Gwynnie Bee’s 1 year anniversary, they are offering new members receive an extra 1 month 1 garment upgrade + 30 day free trial over the next week (valid until March 7th with the 1, 2, and 3 garment plans). If you are already a member, refer your friends with your personal referral link to earn free months of Gwynnie Bee! You won’t be charged unless you continue with the service and you can cancel online at anytime. Simply sign up here and mention Skinny Emmie to take advantage of the free trial offer.

FTC Disclosure: If you sign up for Gwynnie Bee and mention my name, I get credit towards my subscription costs. This is a service I paid for before all of that, so honestly if you don’t sign up through me, no sweat! I just want people to know about it, regardless.

With Coterie being a bust, I went back to the Gwynnie Bee office to drool over endless racks of clothes, do some brainstorming, and try on a few pieces that might make it to the next new arrivals list soon. There are a few pieces I want to get my hands on, but I’ll patiently wait!