There are a handful of names that built the foundation this entire industry stands on. Re/Dress NYC is one of them.
If you were around for the early days of plus size fashion online, you remember what Re/Dress meant. That Brooklyn storefront on Boerum Place was a pilgrimage site. It was where the teggings cult began. It was where a $70 vintage Pucci-print dress sat next to a Torrid staple, and you walked out feeling like the fashion world finally made room for you.
It was community before “community” turned into a marketing word.
Now the woman who built it, Deb Malkin, is putting the whole story on paper. The book is called More Rump, Less Frump: Celebrating Re/Dress NYC, Brooklyn’s Fat Fashion Paradise 2008-2011. She’s funding it through Kickstarter right now.
We are asking you to back it. Here’s why.
This Is Our History, And It Deserves To Be Documented
Plus size fashion media loves to talk about “firsts.” Re/Dress NYC was one of the real ones.
It launched in an era when plus size shoppers were told to be grateful for whatever ill-fitting scraps the industry offered them. Re/Dress NYC said no to that. It built a physical space, then a beloved online shop, then handed the torch to new ownership when Rachel Kacenjar stepped in to keep the mission alive. Every chapter of that evolution is a lesson in what it takes to build something for a community the mainstream industry kept ignoring.
TCF has been in the room for a lot of that story. We were covering Re/Dress back in the FFFWeek days, cheering the teggings drops, and reporting when the online-only chapter began. When Deb reached out to interview us for this book, it felt less like press outreach and more like two old friends catching up on how far plus size fashion has come, and how much further it still has to go.
We asked Deb what still lives in her body when she thinks back on those Boerum Place days at Re/Dress NYC. Her answer is the whole reason this book needs to exist.
“I still get choked up remembering some of the customers who became regulars. Every time Sarah Biz would walk in the door we’d shout her name like we were in Cheers. One time I didn’t see a regular for a few weeks and called her to check in and see if she was okay, and she was so moved by it. I loved dressing girls for prom and watching my staff, who were some of the most creative and loving people, give really affirming style advice and celebrate whenever someone stepped out of their comfort zone.”
That’s what a lot of us forget to say out loud about the early plus size fashion world. It was people showing up for each other. In a dressing room. On a phone call. In a shout across the room when your favorite regular walked through the door.
Books like this don’t get written by accident, and they definitely don’t get published without support. Independent plus size history is not a priority for big publishing houses. If we want our stories told with the nuance and love they deserve, we have to be the ones who fund them.
The Industry Still Hasn’t Learned This Lesson
We asked Deb what she wishes the industry still understood about what Re/Dress was doing back then. Her answer is a direct line to right now, not just 2008.
“I think I’d like the industry to know how difficult it was to find interesting plus size clothing to sell and how eager our customers were for it. That’s why we held indie and designer trunk shows. That’s why when Beth Ditto’s line came out in the UK, I ordered a bunch of pieces at retail because everyone wanted to see it. I wish brands would have taken seriously the truth that there is an audience for plus size fashion and in person shopping experiences. They could have curated interesting experiences and invested in this customer, but they didn’t, and now it’s getting worse again.”
Read that last line again.
It’s 2026. Plus size options are shrinking back down while brands act surprised that customers are frustrated. Deb’s answer isn’t nostalgia. It’s a warning the industry still hasn’t heeded. This book is proof the demand was always there. It always has been.
What Backing This Kickstarter Makes Possible
This isn’t a vague ask to “support the cause.” Backing this campaign puts real dollars behind printing, production, and getting this book into the hands of everyone who lived this history or wishes they had. It tells publishers that our stories sell. It tells the next Deb Malkin that the community will show up.
We asked Deb directly what backers are helping her preserve. Her answer is the reason this ask matters more than any single Kickstarter reward tier.
“I got sick of going to book stores and never seeing us reflected. Re/Dress NYC was a fashion happening. Yes, it was a moment in time, but it’s just as valid a cultural force as the million books about a band you never heard of. We made personal style and self expression the forefront of a plus size person’s experience and created a space for fashion to be fun and empowering. We can never have too much visibility. This book will serve as a marker of history, both in fat liberation and plus size fashion. If we don’t remember, they’ll tell us it never existed. Through my publishing partner Blurring Books, we are hopeful to have this book in places like the Brooklyn Museum and other art and fashion institutions.”
Sit with that for a second.
This isn’t just a keepsake for people who shopped there. Deb is fighting for plus size fashion history to have a permanent seat in the same institutions that spent decades pretending we didn’t shape culture. A shelf at the Brooklyn Museum. A citation the next time someone writes the real history of fat liberation and fashion. That happens because backers like you decided it was worth funding.
Mark Your Calendar
This isn’t a one and done ask. There’s a whole run of ways to show up between now and the campaign’s close, in person if you’re local and online if you’re not.
- Friday, August 28: Kickstarter launches
- Friday, August 28, 6-8pm: Kick-off event at Plus BKLYN
- Sunday, August 30: Early bird rewards end, so don’t sleep on this window
- Saturday, September 6, 10am-5pm: Thick Thrift x BQ Flea Event
- Saturday, September 19, 1-5pm: Re/Dress NYC Revisited Closet Sale at Plus BKLYN
- Monday, September 28: Final 48 hours of the campaign
- Wednesday, September 30: Kickstarter campaign ends
If you’re anywhere near Brooklyn, the kick-off event and the closet sale are your chance to be back in a room that feels like the old Re/Dress NYC days. If you’re not local, the early bird window is your move.
Head to the More Rump, Less Frump Kickstarter and back it today. Every pledge counts. Every share helps this book reach people who need to know this history exists.
Re/Dress NYC gave so many of us our first real taste of feeling seen in fashion. The least we can do is help make sure that story gets told right, and gets remembered.
