{Commuity} My Thoughts on The Limited's eloquii Demise

Note: As of Feb 2014 ELOQUII has returned with a new brand focus. Learn more here!

Last week it was announced on the eloquii by The Limited facebook page that the brand will be phased out after the summer.

If you have read my blog for any amount of time you know that besides being asked to model the brand on television, that I have been a HUGE FAN and self imposed ambassador for the brand devoting lots of time to showcasing it via my “Dressing Room” series, so you can imagine my dismay at this.

Earlier in the month, it was announced that Linda Heasley was leaving The Limited and heading over to Lane Bryant to become it’s CEO.  While this was somewhat shocking considering how long she had been with The Limited, it wasn’t really a shock to me because I knew from my constant emails with her over the years that she was very interested in serving the plus size market.

But the fact that The Limited states that it “has decided to phase out eloquii and we have begun discussions with others who have expressed an interest in the future of the brand and/or its products” is somewhat of a surprise because I for one was very pleased with the direction that the design of the brand was taking under designer Jodi Arnold.

I am no business analyst by any means but I have always had some qualms about how the brand was marketed or better yet not marketed.

For one, the decision to give it space in only certain stores in my mind was a set up for failure because while a lot of us are willing to do the online thing and cross our fingers, I found that there was just a lot of women who still didn’t know about the brand and was surprised when I would mention it.

They seemed to put a lot of time into facebook but a lot of their potential base is not necessarily on facebook and of course plus size women tend to need to TOUCH and try on clothes. So having to pay shipping and go thru the potential trouble of returning things is not the business.

Also the constant sales model I think always makes people think that a brand has a pricing issue and if they don’t, it can definitely create a pricing issue because consumers get used to sales and waiting for sales and I am sure that is not good for a bottom line.

With the brand being so new, I would have loved to have seen them drop it in more stores and even hold regular events for it as they have done for many of their collaborations and new lines, at one which back in 2010 I meet Linda Heasley and started my conversations about The Limited’s plus size future.

Fashion is such a personal thing, and while I know lots of women loved their options, I saw some comments about the “trend factor” of their offerings perhaps not being up to par with some of the other plus size brands and I could not disagree more.

In my mind, it was a brand on par with Alfani and Inc, both owned by Macy’s. They are brands geared more towards the woman who liked to keep it trendy AND also professional, which is also in line with The Limited’s regular range.

So, I for one was glad that in addition to brands like ASOS Curve which I love but are “hyper trendy, I had the brand as another option to showcase the many sides of my fashion personality.

So, it is a bit disheartening that they have chosen the path that they have and of course it sucks that once again, a US brand seems to be missing the boat and the HUGE opportunity that there is in plus size fashion.