I am a “sale junkie” for the most part – if it’s not on sale, I’m usually not buying it unless I am totally knocked out by the item(s) in question. I was raised this way because since the minute I came into this world I had a family member who worked in retail. Employee discount? Check. Knowing when sales and markdowns would occur? Check.
As a result of growing up this way I’m almost allergic to paying full price but in 2010 I resolve to pay full price (sometimes) 
Why? I am glad you asked.
As I have often lamented: 2009 was an ABYSMAL year for high end plus size clothing. We lost the Dana Buchman, Ellen Tracy and Anne Klein bridge lines and the more mature plus size customer lost Spencer Alexis. This followed the loses of several other high end plus size labels in the preceding years: Sunny Choi, Tamotsu, Oscar de la Renta, Emmanuel, DKNY . . .
Now a few high lines that do plus size still remain: Tadashi, Lafayette 148, Caroline Rose and Eileen Fisher among them. For the purpose of this post I’m going to focus on Eileen Fisher and Ellen Tracy.
In retail Eileen Fisher is known for having a high “sell-through rate” (sell-through rate compares the amount of inventory a retailer received from a manufacturer against the amount of merchandise it sells to the consumer) but “sell-through rate” isn’t the only factor that matters to retailers: there is also the question of markdowns.
About two and a half years ago I was talking to an employee who worked in the plus size department for a major department store. This was before the “economic crisis” hit and it’s a good example for illustrating the problem when dealing with high end plus size clothing. Here, in a nutshell is what she told me:
The store had sold Ellen Tracy plus sizes for a long time but stopped carrying it because not enough of it sold at or near full price. A few years later they brought it back in order to try again and their customers were overjoyed. Every customer who commented on being happy to see Ellen Tracy back was told the same thing: if not enough of it sells at or near full price we’re going to have to stop carrying it again so if you really like the line and want to remain in the store please don’t wait for drastic markdowns.
Well sure enough, not enough people heeded the warning and once again Ellen Tracy’s plus size line was pulled from the racks.
Now I fully understand that not everyone can afford to pay a few hundred dollars for a jacket or dress or a couple of hundred dollars for a skirt but if you are plus size and there is a high end designer you really like PLEASE do so.
Yes, big retailers often get markdown money and they’d rather sell to you at 60% OFF than sell off the merchandise to a liquidator at 80-85% OFF and I do not wish to come off as being hypocritical as I often plug sales and sale prices on this site but this year please keep in mind: if the item you are buying is more than 50% OFF the majority of the time the retailer is losing money by selling that item to you and if you ran a store would you continue to carry brands that had to be deeply marked down in order for you to sell them?
