Trendy boutique-style for the plus-size

Two sisters have found a niche in the growing plus-size clothing market for women with their label, which features stylish fashions not found in stores.

Lucie Sholl fitted model Katie Hall with one of the latest designs at B&Lu’s. Lucie and her sister Chris started their plus-size fashion company that sells only on the Internet. They began in 2000, and say that they are already bringing in nearly $1 million in annual sales.As they tell it, when sisters Chris and Lucie Sholl started their clothing company B&Lu in 2000, plus-size women’s fashion had two categories — frumpy or pricey.
“Or a combination of both,” Lucie Sholl said. “Even worse.”
 
Now, women’s plus-size clothing is a $32 billion industry crowded not only by Lane Bryant, but also by dozens of big-time retailers and smaller-time websites.

B&Lu — one of the latter — has withstood the onslaught. And despite the competition, the sisters feel their website is filling a niche.

Their clothes are fun rather than frumpy, inexpensive rather than pricey, they say. But they’ve gone further: “It’s boutiquey style,” Lucie Sholl said. “It’s one-of-a-kind things you can’t find anywhere, much less in a size 5X.”

The designs are theirs, sometimes tweaked versions of styles they’ve seen elsewhere. Everything carries their label.

In B&Lu’s nearly eight years, the sisters say, they have gone from “one order a day and we were happy” to bringing in almost $1 million annually.

They went from waitressing nightly to make ends meet to waitressing occasionally for fun; from running the business out of Chris’ house in Maple Grove to buying a place for it in St. Paul.

Along the way, Chris and Lucie, who are not plus-size themselves, have learned what curvy women want, how they shop and what it means to find a great-fitting pair of jeans.

The Web, a better way

B&Lu began as Benina&Lu, a reference to the sisters’ childhood nicknames for one another. The sisters wanted to use their backgrounds in marketing and advertising to start a family business. Plus-size fashion, then, was secondary — an opportunity in the market.

Originally, they were thinking direct mail. But it took the cost of printing and sending just one catalogue to convince the sisters that the Web was a better way. Soon after, they realized that B&Lu was a bit easier to search and type.

Although the sisters dream of opening a boutique in St. Paul, being exclusively online has its advantages — low overhead, plus convenience and privacy for their customers.

But there are disadvantages. “Some people, especially people that are plus-sized, want to go to a store and try on clothes and see how they look and fit,” Lucie Sholl said.

B&Lu’s models ease some of that concern. Most plus-size models are a size 10 or 12, “but we don’t even sell clothes that size,” Chris Sholl said. So the models featured on the site range from a 1X, size 14/16, to a 3X, size 22/24. And customers have noticed.

“I can’t tell you how aggravating it can be trying to shop for clothes when all you have to go by is how it looks on a size 4,” wrote Danielle, who lives in Arkansas, in an e-mail similar to many others the sisters have received. “I was so excited … to find some beautiful REAL plus-sized women.”

Katie Hall, who lives in Hudson, Wis., is one of those models. She has a degree in fashion design and manages at Lane Bryant. After reading about B&Lu, she contacted the Sholl sisters to offer help and expertise.

Plus-size women have more options than they did even five years ago, Hall said, but B&Lu still stands out.

“Lane Bryant has stuff that’s cute, but not a lot that’s trendy,” she said. “B&Lu has a little more edge to it.”

The fitting

One recent afternoon, Lucie Sholl flipped through hangers holding some of the new styles Hall would try on at a fitting that week. The fitting is one of the final steps in a process of designing, ordering and readying clothing.

She pulled out a simple casual top that featured three distinct fabric-covered buttons.

“It took some work to get these buttons,” she said. “I knew we wanted something that was different, a little more unique, but to get people in L.A.’s garment district to go beyond simple is always difficult.”

The goal is to give a shirt cute buttons, a dress fine fabric or a skirt an unusual print without raising the price too high. A top might sell for $24 to $46, and an average customer spends $90 to $100 an order, which might be two to four items.

Importing clothing adds quality but costs more, so Lucie tries to stay domestic when possible. But she demands a lot from the manufacturers who attach B&Lu labels.

In the past year, small companies have popped up, trying to do the casual plus-size thing, Chris Sholl said. “That’s competition for us, but their stuff just doesn’t have the same quality and look.”

Chris focuses on the business side of things, tracking orders and finances, and Lucie takes care of the style, designing and ordering items.

As the company has grown, Lucie has gotten better at guessing what items will sell. But there are still surprises — such as a loose-fitting blue dress she envisioned with the season’s “tights, belts, heels,” but which just hasn’t moved.

The biggest learning curve came early. The sisters ordered some skimpier items they were unsure would be popular, such as tanks with spaghetti straps, and some tube tops. And they sold — well.

“Just because you’re plus-size doesn’t mean you want to blend in,” Lucie Sholl said. “Or maybe you do want to blend in — but with cool, hip-looking people.”

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168

Jenna Ross • jross@startribune.com

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