HIGH-END FASHION OPTIONS: One-year-old size-inclusive shopping site 11 Honoré hosted a breakfast at Sadelle’s in New York Thursday to toast the launch of their editorial content platform, Page 11, focused on fashion, beauty, personal style and wellness.
And toast may be an understatement. The breakfast consisted of house salmon tower, grapefruit cocktail, blueberry pancakes, cheese blintzes, scrambled eggs, sausage and avocado. And plenty of bagels — giving journalists and influencers enough sustenance to power through the first day of fashion week.
Founded last year by Patrick Herning, 11 Honoré is the first retailer of its kind to offer a selection of luxury and designer ready-to-wear from sizes 10 to 24. By partnering with designers, the site offers resources they need, such as fit technology, graders and fit models to produce in extended sizing. Many of the brands have never offered their clothing in plus sizes before, and their patternmakers might not be comfortable with it, nor have the resources. The styles are the same as in straight sizes.
The site launched in August 2017 with 15 brands, and for fall will feature 70, including Brandon Maxwell, Adam Lippes, Altuzarra, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Derek Lam, Marc Jacobs, Jason Wu, Jonathan Simkhai, Christian Siriano, Theory and Tome.
In the designer market, 11 Honoré will often carry three to eight styles from a particular designer, and in contemporary, will buy five to 10 styles from each designer. “We’re going deeper with the brands that perform well,” said Herning. Most of the brands will be able to produce in sizes 10 to 20, and the site is pushing them to go to size 24. Siriano produces up to size 26.
In speaking to the roomful of editors, models and influencers about the editorial content, editorial director Melissa Magsaysay — journalist, author and WWD alum — said she’s excited to be able to meet so many new people, see so many writers, editors and journalists doing so much for diversity and inclusivity and to tell different stories through the fashion, style and beauty lens.
Among the guests at Thursday’s breakfast were Susan Moses, celebrity stylist and the author of “The Art of Dressing Curves,” Emme, the plus-size model and body-image advocate, Danielle Palma, agent at Muse Management, and Samhita Mukhopadhyay, executive editor of Teen Vogue.
“This is what we need,” said Emme, about the 11 Honoré site. “A lot of people are walking away from fast fashion, and want higher quality and more bespoke clothing and will pay for it.”
“It lasts longer in the closet and it fits better,” added Moses. “At the end of the day, it’s about fit.”