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Founders, Bodacious
www.bodacious.ca

If Vancouver Ladies Who Launch Incubator leaders Barb Wilkins and Lorna Ketler had their way in the fashion world, there would be no such thing as ‘plus-size’ clothing.

Why differentiate when women come in all sizes? But many retailers do differentiate, and don’t provide many stylish choices to women who wear larger sizes.

Lorna and Barb became so frustrated with the lack of funky and fun clothing for curvaceous women, that the two cousins from Canada launched Bodacious – a retail store, Web site and apparel line that offers “clothing to celebrate your curves” in sizes 10-24. Their Bodacious jeans are featured in the April 2006 issue of InStyle magazine.

When the Shopping Gets Tough, the Tough Start a Business

Barb: “About five and a half years ago, I had my own pre-school childcare business and was feeling kind of underemployed and burnt out. I’m also a singer and I was always having trouble finding clothes to wear on stage. Lorna and I were so frustrated after one particular shopping trip because we were having trouble finding something fun and funky that would fit a curvy girl. We decided that instead of complaining about what wasn’t out there for us, we would create the store we wanted to shop in.”

Should We Do This? Could We Do This?

Lorna: “Barb and I had several conversations about ‘Should we do this? Could we do this?’ and one night, we were all having dinner together and I said to Barb, ‘Do you want to do this?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ That was a Thursday, and by Sunday, we had confirmed our retail space. We knew our passion was there, and we had the support of our husbands and families, so we decided to jump off the edge.”

Taking the Stigma Out of Size

Barb: “What we’re really about is taking the stigma out of size and offering women the styles and fashion that they’re seeing out there (in smaller sizes.) We’re not ‘plus’ size clothing, we’re just fashion in larger sizes. We don’t use ‘extra large’ and that kind of terminology. Extra extra extra large… what exactly does that mean anyway? If you see that label on your clothes, it’s not real great for the way you feel about yourself.”

Many Women Feeling Squeezed

Barb: “We want to integrate with the fashion industry so that it’s normal for a woman who is a size 18 to choose between many different styles when she walks into a store.
A lot of clothes are being made in China, and they only have small, medium and large type sizes, and a large will fit maybe a size eight. Sizes are coming down in that way, and that’s really damaging. You’ll have women who are usually size 10 buying ‘extra large’ clothing, and it’s tight and they don’t know what to think. Our sizes are based on measurements. A 14 is a 14 is a 14, and it doesn’t matter who makes it.

“We used to carry clothes starting at size 14, but we had so many people coming in who were size 10s and 12s, and a little curvy or busty… we had them coming in because nothing else out there was fitting. So we started our sizing smaller.”

Larger Fashions Take Shape

Barb: “If you wear clothes that are too big for you and don’t have shape, you look bigger. We have tops that come in at the waist and flare out at the hips a bit. It’s all about showing off the curve. We spend a lot of time looking at fashion magazines to see how we can adapt (those fashions) for a full-figure.”

Making Customers Cry (in a Good Way)

Barb: “It’s so rewarding when you take a risk and it pays off for you, and people are telling you every single day, ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ We’ve had people cry in our store. It happens a lot. They’re crying because they’re so happy (that they’re finding clothes that fit). One woman put on a pair of jeans that fit her, and she called me an hour later and said, ‘They still look good, even at home!’ Sometimes people have a body change that happens, whether they have been ill or had a baby, and there’s lots of emotion involved in that. If you can go out and buy clothes that fit, that helps people feel good about themselves.”

Daring to Dream

Lorna: “I never knew I could be an entrepreneur and have a big dream. Only in the last 10 years, through meeting strong women entrepreneurs, did I come to realize it was possible for me. My education is limited – I went to high school and then a year of college working in the field of helping people with disabilities. I got computer training and did jobs in offices and worked in non-profits. That’s where my interest was. I’ve always been into helping people.

“Our story isn’t typical. We don’t have the college degrees that many entrepreneurs do. We really did start from scratch by being creative and resourceful.”

Family Influences

Barb: “I grew up in an entrepreneurial household. My father had a sporting goods shop selling ski equipment and clothing in the Fraser Valley where I grew up. I saw my Dad do really well and also really struggle. When you sell ski equipment, a lot of what you sell depends on the weather.

‘When I wanted to start (Bodacious), he thought I was crazy because he knew how hard it would be. I knew that this idea was special and different and didn’t depend on the weather. He’s so proud of me now, but in the beginning he wasn’t really encouraging. I think he was being protective.”

Doing Well Without a Degree

Barb: ” I went right from high school into music, singing and performing. I worked. Throughout high school, we always had jobs. Education for me has always been learning as I do. Sometimes I regret not going further with education, but I haven’t let it stop me. I’m meeting people all the time with degrees who are looking to get into something that has nothing to do with their degrees.”

Selling Clothes and Un-Self-Consciousness

Lorna: “In the last two years, we doubled our sales. We had almost $250,000 in sales last year. Now we have more control over our inventory, so we should be seeing more profit. We see more of a profit on the designs that we develop. We would love to get picked up by a department store, like the Bay in Canada or Nordstrom in the States. It’s not just about the clothes. It’s about the attitude behind the clothes. It’s about positive body talk and being OK with your body.”

Getting Funding by Going to the Head Honcho

Lorna: “We got a $5,000 line of credit and a $5,000 loan from a local credit union. We have gotten more loans over time. One of the things we were kind of proud of that we did… We had difficulty getting attention from a bank – they wouldn’t return our calls. So we put a binder together with all of our media articles and got a meeting with the president of the bank. He was so impressed that he set up a meeting with the person we needed to talk to. He even came into the store and met with us. We’re pretty good at being out there and telling our story and we’ve had a lot of support from the local media.”

PR Success – The Third Time’s the Charm

Barb: “About a year ago, we got call from InStyle magazine in New York. They had been searching the Internet for plus-size clothing and our site caught someone’s eye. They asked, ‘Can you send us some clothes? We’re interested. ‘So we put together a package. The clothes came back to us, and the magazine said, ‘Nothing this time, but thanks.’ This happened a second time, and again all the clothes came back to us. The third time, we only sent clothing with our own label on it. They sent everything back, except there was a piece of clothing missing. So we called to ask about it, and they said, ‘We think we might be shooting those (Bodacious jeans). We’re liking those.’”

Greatest Success

Barb: “We”re most proud of creating a space that makes women feel amazing about themselves. The success with the magazines is the icing on the cake. It’s a great stepping stone for us. One of our most proud moments was being interviewed on a local chat show on TV. They did the interview, and the fashions came out on the models. Not once during the interview did they even mention that the clothes are for larger size women.”

Greatest Challenges

Barb: “Financial growth. It’s always a challenge getting all the money to do the things you want to do. I see that changing as we develop our own line. We do have a mentor, though, and that’s helping us through this learning curve. We can get overwhelmed with things like all of the paperwork and administration.”

Lorna: “I think one of the things we’re having a hard time with is letting go of our baby.
We finally have staff in during the week so we can work on production and work on our business rather than in our business.”

Learning from Mistakes

Lorna: “If I had to start it all over again, I would do more training in bookkeeping and accounting. We’ve always been very good at doing that and staying on top of everything, but maybe just having a better feel for what things are supposed to look like, what profit margins are, would have been helpful.”

Words of Advice – Just Say ‘No’ Nicely

Barb: “One of the lessons we’re still learning and biggest things that we had a problem with in the beginning is being too nice… learning to say ‘No,’ or ‘ That doesn’t work for us.’ We weren’t brought up that way. We were brought up to be nice. We’re still being nice, but now we’re also being really clear about what we need for our own business. Now we’ll nip something in the bud by saying ‘No,’ whereas in the past we would have tried to sugarcoat it or avoid dealing with it.”

Words of Advice – Listen to Your Heart

Lorna: “Something we’ve really been in tune with in our store is paying attention to what our store is telling us. We never dreamed that we would be going in the direction that we’re going now (selling new clothes instead of pre-owned and creating their own fashion line). But we said, ‘OK, this is where the store wants to go, where our customers want to go, and we’re going to take the risk.’ The day after we stopped selling used clothing we had our best day in sales.”

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