Up next in 10
We're back with another Speaking of Curves series where we spotlight, celebrate, and support entrepreneurs and businesses in the Plus community!
Join us every Thursday at 12pm, EST we will interview different businesses, designers, indies, and influencers in the community!
Today's guest is Boutique Owner and Blogger/Influencer, Aymie Rondeau.
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0:06
hello hello hello hello happy thursday um it's been a week great
0:11
it's been a hell of a week i'm marie danae i'm the creator of the curvy fashionista um your plus size fashion media resource
0:19
and destination for all things plus um we're here with another speaking of curves we do this
0:25
every thursday talking with plus size business owners designers creators influencers movers
0:32
and shakers in the plus-size space this was started specifically to show support
0:38
show love and to help plus-sized business help bring awareness to various plus size businesses
0:44
through the pandemic right so that we can support those brands and that they meet us on the other side once
0:50
and whenever we make it through this pandemic right so this week we have a fun guest
0:58
um especially with everything going on in the news around loft i'm talking about um if you're in and
1:03
also too they're from canada so we've got a canadian sister in the house talking with us today
1:10
so as you're joining in if you've never watched this before we encourage you to let us know where you're tuning in
1:16
from from the comments so don't be shy say hello tell us where you're tuning in
1:21
from and if you have questions throughout our um throughout our interview
1:27
drop them in the comment box drop a comment drop drop your question we'll be here to answer them we'll bring
1:33
them up we'll put them on the screen so without further ado i want to say hello to some people who already just
1:39
said hello so we've got marie hello we got another marie hey marie um we've got
1:44
keisha coming in from arkansas we've got uh jan here from scottsdale arizona i
1:50
love it we're on like different coasts and everything so hello y'all um our guest today is
1:57
miss amy from the curvy shop now she is a plus-size boutique owner
2:02
she lit um her um up in canada calgary to
2:07
and also she is the creator of the loft um she created a change.org petition
2:15
for the loft so do me a favor you guys and welcome miss amy hello amy hi hello
2:22
thank you so much for joining us i hope you're doing well thanks i'm great how are you good so
2:29
you're up there in canada how's the weather it actually for canada it is really nice
2:34
so yeah all the snow is just about melted uh but that could change at any moment we could get snow in
2:40
june up here so um but yeah for now we're we're in our shorts and sandals
2:45
i love it i love it so um for those who don't know you like tell us a little bit about the curvy shop you started it in 2019
2:53
tell us a little bit about your um your business yeah for sure so the kirby shop is an
2:58
online virtual boutique uh it's a curated collection of our favorite picks
3:04
in women's plus size fashion um so my focus is yeah providing you know things i know that fit really
3:10
well they're great quality they're on trend they're modern um reasonably priced budget friendly things
3:17
like that um so i started the company about two years ago
3:23
um i had gone through eating disorder outpatient treatment
3:28
up here in canada and that really kind of sparked more learning about body positivity um health
3:35
at every size um and just accepting my body as it is i had i was kind of at the lower end of
3:44
plus size fashion higher end of straight sizes but really struggling um to find things that fit i'm a
3:50
chartered accountant so that's a cpa down in the u.s um so i work full time
3:56
i'm in a professional environment and i was really struggling to find things that i thought were
4:02
modern that you know suited my personality i have to say that is a huge call out
4:08
all the time finding professional business casual plus size fashion pieces that allow for
4:13
you to move and and navigate your work environment with confidence
4:20
totally yeah yeah and like i i've always wondered like there's all this research
4:25
to show that plus-sized women or plus-size folks in general earn less than street-sized people so
4:33
is that you know i think discrimination things like that have play a role but
4:38
then does confidence also play a role so like look and feel your best
4:45
do you feel like a little bit yeah um so yeah you know up in canada we
4:52
don't really have a lot of choice when it comes to plus size fashion um like our largest mall here in
4:59
calgary there's one store that caters to plus-sized women and like a really dark
5:05
dusty corner of our our largest department store which is hudson's bay
5:10
company um but yeah it's not a welcoming environment it's at like the back of the
5:16
store it's not well lit there's no one there to help you like we're not welcomed in as customers
5:23
um so i started doing all of my shopping online ordering things up from the us
5:28
and just exploring more brands um so yeah that's when that's when i
5:34
started the company i um entered into um a crowdfunding competition
5:40
through a financial institution here in alberta called um atb financial uh it's called the build her
5:46
business campaign and it was a crowdfunding campaign specifically targeted to
5:51
female entrepreneurs so i answered it oh you watched your business like by entering into this contest yeah so i
5:58
had i didn't have a website i didn't really have a social media presence i loved that yeah yeah so i really
6:06
entered it in having this idea and wanting to test the market to see were people even interested in having
6:14
more and better plus size fashion in alberta and in canada um and yeah it
6:19
took off like wildfire um i ended up winning a place into the final round of judging
6:26
um my business plan was judged by some industry experts and i won so that got me some funding on
6:34
top of what i'd already crowdfunded um which i used to then incorporate launch the website
6:40
um and that all happened about two years ago now let me say this for those of you guys who are out there
6:45
i want you guys to pay attention you know like we've introduced so many different types of business owners throughout
6:50
so here we have this amy boutique owner of the kirby shop up in calgary in canada
6:57
and what you'll notice is that a lot of these business owners when they
7:03
started they just took a leap of faith so if you are someone who is aspiring to
7:08
have a business who's had dreams of starting a business like there are like you you gotta have to take that
7:14
leap of faith one of the things that you if you also caught that miss um miss amy mentioned
7:19
is that she actually put together a business plan right she put together a business plan
7:24
um and then she submitted to some of these um you know this contest for us like we just wrapped our um
7:33
uh application process for our indie designers for the cultivate award
7:38
and you know for some people they're like i don't know i'm just gonna try it like you know sometimes you just have to leap
7:45
right you have to take that leap of faith and if you also caught she also said that she works full-time
7:51
last week's scheds she worked full-time and started her own side hustle of the business
7:56
and as that grows the goal has been to then switch over and have your own business correct yes that that is the
8:04
goal um obviously you know for the series of events over the last year have put
8:10
a you know a bit of a delay with that but i just i keep trucking along um for sure
8:17
and how has like let's talk about it like because oftentimes like on instagram on facebook everyone's like oh my god
8:24
i'm doing so amazing oh my gosh i had an amazing call like all these like highlights right
8:30
we're seeing highlight reels but as an entrepreneur as a business owner there are definitely some peaks
8:35
or valleys right yeah yes and some low points and when you pair that
8:41
with like going through this pandemic like how did that like how did that affect you or
8:47
impact you yeah yeah for sure yeah no there's there's definitely been uh peaks and
8:53
valleys it can be tough to stay motivated um i think yeah it's just more
8:59
kind of like the level of uncertainty that coven has created so i mean i i think i'm pretty fortunate
9:06
that my my business was virtual from day one um so i didn't have like a brick and mortar
9:13
presence or anything like that that now i you know i'm panicking how i'm gonna keep my doors open
9:19
um see i was able to just continue to run the business as usual but i think where it created an
9:27
uncertainty was not knowing like what's going to happen with my sources of income that then would fuel
9:35
my growth plan so it's it's put more of um a pause on some of the growth plans that
9:42
i have um i think the other thing too is i mean again my
9:47
because i'm kind of curating a collection based on like what i'm seeing what people are wanting to
9:52
wear um yeah sometimes it does get a little like okay what am i gonna put in the store
9:59
you know i'm not gonna be putting you know dresses and things for dinner and whatever else
10:05
because no one's going on dates i you know restaurants are closed
10:11
but they're reaching back into their closet versus like intentionally going out to buy something yeah yeah so it's shifted to a lot more
10:18
like loungewear casual like blouses things you can wear on a zoom call when you're working from
10:25
home um things like that so yeah i had to pivot that way um i
10:30
i don't know me purse i would i would feel wrong about put like selling you know a dress or something like that
10:37
some you know something really dressy when it's like you know i don't know where
10:42
so would you save in your pivot during the rona i like to call it the rona
10:49
panini some people call it like you know they've nicknamed it right so through
10:54
this time like you've had to pivot you've adjusted your assortment so that
11:00
you can better um deliver to your clients needs correct yeah okay and so when you're talking
11:07
about some of those lows like and you're like wondering where like how did you manage to stay motivated
11:14
and stay because as business owners this is rough and it's scary like
11:21
so what did you do how did you navigate that um i think you know what to be honest if
11:30
i needed to take a pause i took a pause so if i wasn't feeling it that night or
11:35
that weekend it's like you know what i'm gonna turn my computer off and i'm not gonna touch anything for the weekend um
11:43
yeah i try to plan ahead as much as i can um but yeah like i said if if i wasn't
11:50
feeling it and i and i didn't think i could like be myself and be positive i just turn it off take a break take
11:58
care of myself take the dog to the park and relax
12:03
and you know that's important like we talk about we've talked about in the past and even on the site
12:09
about the importance of giving yourself grace giving yourself grace and kind of like uh finding your
12:15
way through right finding your way through and staying positive so now that we've kind of adjusted and
12:22
we're kind of like making our way through the rona for you with your business are you starting to see like an uptick
12:29
because you're in canada and your country has acted like real positively in terms of like looking out
12:35
for y'all um but like how has that impacted or have you seen like now an
12:42
impact like a little bit of a pickup with business like you know a year later
12:48
literally yeah i would say kind of like right out of the gates like when people first were
12:54
like in work from home mode i saw an immediate uptick and then things
13:00
declined again and then now i'm starting to see it come back okay since um
13:07
like kind of coming into 2021. it's literally a rollercoaster listen
13:13
right and so like well what would be next then for the kirby shop what is that next goal for you or that
13:20
next milestone and how can the community how can how our readers like
13:26
help support you to get there yeah so next steps for us are will be designing a capsule
13:32
collection um it'll be focused on like modern cool girl workwear work to like transition into
13:40
like all parts of your life um so yeah if there's anyone out there i would love people's feedback
13:45
on what they want like what do you think is missing in your wardrobe um i am planning to have some focus
13:52
groups coming up in the next few months here so um definitely keep an eye out on our social media for that if you want to
13:59
participate let me know um but yeah that that's kind of the next steps for us so
14:05
i would say just continuing to support us follow us on social media share our posts just continuing to
14:11
spread the word and and when you say um you're so let's kind of rewind you just said capsule collection
14:17
you said that real quick so you're creating your own line um in your store
14:23
um where to work um really great essentials and and fun pieces what's the size range
14:32
my plan right now is to go from if i can go from like a 1x to a 5x or zero to
14:39
four like something in that in that range i definitely i don't want to stick with that kind of standard of
14:44
like oh we're doing one to three x i'd i want to offer a full size range as
14:49
much as that's awesome and that's appreciated so if you guys are just tuning in i'm here with miss amy of the curvy shop she's a boutique
14:57
based in calgary um canada she's sharing with us like her journey she's also just sharing with us that
15:03
she's getting ready to launch her own capsule collection of where to work very specific to the
15:09
where to work options um carrying and her goal is to get it from a one to a 5x
15:14
so that's like one thing that's really amazing so we appreciate you miss amy for doing that um and we're talking a little bit about
15:21
her journey how she started how rona has impacted and how you can support so because she
15:27
is starting um with her news about um launching her capsule collection she will be having some focus groups so
15:33
what i'm going to do is i'm going to drop the link to her site um in the comments so if you are um you
15:40
know curious about the brand want to learn more about her like we've dropped the link in the comments right
15:45
now so that you can kind of get to know and and then also you know sign up for the newsletter
15:50
follow them on social because you know you can sign up for the focus group and give your honest feedback which is like
15:56
brilliantness amy so thumbs up you on that so let's pivot a little bit because there's
16:02
something else that you did and you know we've been talking about it we wrote about it
16:09
over the weekend loft in the comments just you know decided to tell us that
16:14
they are phasing out plus sizes from their assortment now it's interesting because you are a
16:22
um boutique owner and also part of the community but you started edition so if you could do me a favor and tell
16:28
me about this petition you started but a little bit also why in addition to
16:33
like you know like basically like they're almost you can kind of compete with them right
16:39
so why did you start it and like and what are you seeing now like some of the feedback from it
16:44
yeah um so i have been a long time law of customer like as a straight sized gal most of my
16:52
work wear was coming from loft obviously wasn't shopping there when i you know moved into plus sizes um
17:00
so yeah i when you saw that shout out from scottsdale that's my mom down in arizona it was my it was my mom that
17:07
um sent me the news when loft was announcing a plus sign she's like you're going to be so excited about this
17:14
right there miss jan my mom hi
17:22
um so yeah it was my mom that shared the news with me there she's like you're gonna be so excited about this
17:27
loft is coming out with a plus line i like bought the whole thing right away figured out you know this roundabout way
17:34
to actually get the clothes up to me in canada um i'm constantly getting like fedex
17:39
boxes of loft sent to my home that's what i'm wearing right now in solidarity so yeah i mean
17:46
from a business standpoint i'm like well yeah they are a competitor um
17:51
so i mean also thank you you're carving out space for you know more indie brands and and
17:56
things like that but i think we're why i wanted to start the campaign was i feel that
18:03
as plus-sized women we don't have choice when it comes to fashion not all of us want to wear the same
18:10
thing we don't want to go to work you know in t-shirts covered in cartoon characters
18:15
and and things like that right where what i really liked about loft was it was the same item that was made in
18:23
straight sizes made for plus women it was made out of like good fabric
18:29
you know was very like work appropriate um so yeah i think it's important that
18:35
plus women have choice in terms of where they want to shop we should have equal
18:40
access to fashion um we should be able to go to the mall to try things on
18:47
um we shouldn't have to hide at home to shop and then you know take our returns back
18:53
to the store yeah so that's really why i wanted to start that campaign was just to
19:00
highlight that and to show loft like you were walking away from a legitimate customer base this is
19:06
not a good business decision um i think it's time you know look at i
19:13
loved um sean taylor's tick tock video she pointed out like if you're planning a wedding and you're
19:19
over budget you don't uninvite the groom's family you cut back on flowers you cut back on
19:26
decoy give up some shelf space that is for straight sized
19:33
women and give some of it to plus women that want to then that was actually a point i believe
19:39
nicolette mason actually brought this up too where she's mentioning like you know
19:44
if it's business reasons like why not cut back on like the amount of straight size
19:50
options like why is the first choice to cut um the whole plus size
19:56
business yeah like you know don't buy 20 um size smalls of this one
20:04
why can't you cut back on this too rather than completely axing and letting go
20:10
of the whole plus size space um we wrote about it we actually talked
20:15
about five mistakes that we felt they've made with this um because while you have been a long time
20:22
fan there are some readers who still didn't know about loft yeah they didn't know that loft carried
20:29
plus sizes so their marketing was challenged um there were fit
20:34
um issues especially we were on the larger side of plus um we had um i was having a conversation
20:43
with someone and they were telling me how like you know even though they went up to a 26 it felt it fit like a 22. and they were kind of
20:51
sized out of some things because it was a fit and how it you know like and it just wasn't the same right and it wasn't
20:57
consistent but then like from a marketing standpoint
21:02
like did you see them include plus on anything very rare like sometime actually what
21:09
i've seen lately is i'm more on the size appropriation
21:15
side so i get emails almost every day of like hey we have new stuff to be like oh let's see if they have
21:21
that in plus they'll have it on their website with a i would say a midsize model maybe they
21:28
could be modeling plus clothing but the outfit only comes up to an excel or an xxl
21:34
so to me that seems very misleading of like hey like we're just gonna like tease you and
21:40
then now you're going on and seeing fewer options some of the really really really
21:45
really cute stuff wasn't even available in class yeah
21:51
totally didn't even consider that this is you know something we'd want to wear like yes
21:56
give me the skirt give me the fun color pants give me the fun bold color top like
22:02
yeah plus doesn't mean we want to hide exactly exactly yeah i would say the
22:09
reaction like it's been like the full spectrum from like people like really really
22:14
amped up about this like me and you to the other side of like don't petition them they're not
22:20
sustainable that you know this is the demise of fast fashion um you know if they don't want our
22:26
business spend your money somewhere else which are all legitimate points but i would say in
22:32
terms of you know sustainable fashion yes there absolutely is a need
22:37
and a place for sustainable fashion but that may not suit everyone's budget it may not suit their style and
22:44
to kind of my earlier point about options and choice yeah well and if they're over
22:50
producing straight sized pieces that's what's ending up on the sale rack
22:56
and in a landfill the plus size options are selling out that part and that was
23:02
like the weirdest thing it's like they would sell out of plus but they're cutting it yeah and like it
23:08
just doesn't make any sound business sense and from you know i remember being in school and and one of the hardest lessons that are
23:15
like a lesson that they drilled into us was that at the end of the day it's all about the dollar
23:21
yeah if it is this makes no business sense you know if you half
23:27
ass market it you have asked like you know what give us the attention or the inclusion or the
23:33
awareness but then you cut it saying so it's like you set it up for failure like oh we tried
23:38
really yeah there's so many different ways that this could have gone but like you know besides the point you started a
23:45
petition mm-hmm so with this petition what is your goal with it um so yeah right now we're at about
23:53
750 signatures my goal is to meet or exceed a thousand
23:58
uh before i track down some executives at loft and the ascender retail group
24:05
um regardless of their decision i want them to see the names on there and i want them to
24:10
see the comments and to see the impact that this decision is having from
24:16
you know a reputational standpoint um so yeah i get regardless of their decision i want them to know that this
24:23
was a poor choice and that they're having an impact on um on potential customers
24:29
definitely and so we've dropped the link in the comments um for the change.org petition so if you're
24:36
interested in signing the petition to show and to leave direct feedback we encourage you to do so
24:43
um and then you know with that being said like you have the curvy shop you started this
24:50
petition you're launching a clothing brand you know your own clothing brand within your
24:55
business like where do you see the kirby shop in five years oh my
25:01
goodness um i my dream all along is to have brick and mortar stores i would love to see
25:08
like nordstrom but for plus-sized gals um where you can go and like literally
25:14
get anything in a department store um i think obviously the face of retail is changing
25:21
that's something else i would love to know from from plus gap like folks
25:26
we often get the feedback from brands of like well we put the plus sizes on the shelves
25:31
they didn't sell in stores so if a company is going to open a brick and
25:36
mortar store what is stopping people from going into store to buy well
25:42
half of it is like okay i can i can you know give you some i mean is there awareness do they know
25:49
because that's the first part because half the time they'll bring it in but they won't advertise it or they don't educate their associates
25:56
to even know that they carry the plus so if someone comes into a department store like oh we don't have a plus department
26:02
in our reality they do have one it's just a matter like y'all ain't you know you know like y'all
26:09
don't aren't telling your associates your team members but it exists one two
26:16
um is it being marketed like are you doing outreach um outside of your brands
26:22
you know are you including it on your instagram if i go to your instagram page and scroll am i going to see a plus
26:28
model and yes and lifestyle just like we see in straight sizes
26:33
you have to give us both right you can give us representation and inclusion
26:39
not just in like oh here's a rolling rack of some items for yourselves like you have to include us holistically
26:46
right and you'll find like some of these brands that are like oh well we tried don't haven't done these things they
26:52
haven't included it they haven't been consistent you know even on the affiliate side of
26:57
things like as they do their affiliate marketing businesses i can tell you enough like as a as a
27:03
media platform when we try to look for images or imagery and plus well some of these brands don't even
27:09
have it like they don't even consider including a plus model for half of they carry
27:15
so it's really about like what kind of media resources and marketing are you allocating
27:21
are you telling us that it exists are you being inclusive and then is is does the plus-sized
27:28
person feel welcome yes are you in a mall that's like you're the only plus-size carrier like is it
27:34
is it difficult to get to you because most of the time now like lane bryant and torrid um have pulled
27:40
out of malls they're in strict strip malls now so you know you
27:46
bringing it so there's so many things like i'm totally nerding out here but like there's when you talk about like the the
27:53
marketing in the business of plus and and how to reach this consumer you have to consider but these are the
27:59
same considerations that you give to straight sizes totally so i think sometimes people forget that you
28:07
can have these those same nuances that apply to straight sized consumers
28:12
have to apply you can't just if you build it they will come anymore
28:18
totally yeah yeah i wrote um a blog about that recently around
28:24
athleisure where and brands that i think have launched it the right way and brands that have launched it the
28:30
wrong way i think athleta did an amazing job with their launch it's in stores their
28:37
staff are being educated versus and i i in the blog i really wanted to
28:43
cheer for this brand for lululemon they're a canadian brand but their plus launch was horrible
28:52
um so disappointing um and i mean they've had like one size or something they offered
28:59
basically like to the equivalent of a 2x in a handful of things so i have on the
29:06
blog there's some stats i think it worked out to be like five to ten percent of their total product offering to women
29:14
was available in a plus size um but yeah you go on their social media
29:20
there's no plus women the articles are not even modeled on plus size women so you can't even see
29:26
what the item might look like on you um yeah to me it's yeah a very weak
29:31
attempt and just like oh like your plus size you must be like desperate for this
29:37
and then they're gonna be like well we tried what you really you're not trying
29:45
like like that's the thing did you really try so do me a favor like you know
29:52
let everyone know where they can find you where they can follow you i i feel like we can have this conversation since
29:57
we're like like literally we talk about we talk about it right but do me a favor let's circle this back
30:03
i can tell everyone where they can find you where they can shop with you how they can reach you yeah so our
30:09
website is shopthecurvy.com and all of our social media so linkedin instagram pinterest twitter
30:17
facebook everything is at shop the kirby so yeah connect with us there
30:22
um send me a chat send me a note slide into my dms give me your feedback
30:28
um you know what your if there's things that you're looking for in the site again it's all curated so as
30:33
people give us feedback i go out and i hunt it down awesome well thank you so much amy for
30:40
joining us thank you for sharing your thoughts and like i i'm gonna want you to send me that link
30:46
so that we can share that article that you wrote about actual conversation um and for you guys
30:52
watching thank you for joining us thank you for coming in thank you for leaving your comments um and we will be back
30:58
next week we already have our guest booked and i'm so excited we will be back at noon right so 12 p.m
31:05
eastern standard time 9 a.m on the west coast and we'll go from here right um thank
31:11
you again for tuning in i am marie janae from the kirby the founder of the kirby fashionista and we will catch you guys next week bye
31:19
now thanks everyone
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