Dia & Co., the plus-size platform that acquired 11 Honoré in June, is expanding Diane von Furstenberg’s presence on the site. To celebrate, von Furstenberg will host a luncheon at her New York City headquarters in the Meatpacking District on Thursday.
Starting Thursday, Dia & Co. will offer 12 styles priced from $400 to $700, with more styles and further extended sizing to come. The styles range from sizes 10 to 18.
In 2019, von Furstenberg sold one style, the Julian wrap dress, in three colorways: a floral, a houndstooth and a leopard print to 11 Honoré. It was the fastest-selling brand ever launched on 11 Honoré. The expanded offering will now be shoppable on Dia & Co.’s 11 Honoré luxury division, which includes such designers as Brandon Maxwell, Carolina Herrera, Ganni and Tanya Taylor, among others.
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“We did a big business with 11 Honoré, and Dia bought the company and they’re continuing,” said von Furstenberg this week. “They pick the styles that they think are appropriate and their customers will like. I don’t make anything special. Clearly, it’s going well because they’re continuing.”
She emphasized the importance of doing a line that’s inclusive. “It’s very important not to penalize people and to make sure they’re included. Clearly, the wrap looks really good on them, sometimes they have small waists and big boobs. For me, it’s always about women before fashion, and that’s what I care about,” said von Furstenberg.
Dia & Co., which was founded nine years ago, has more than 200 brands available on its site and is the leading size-inclusive marketplace providing sizes ranging from 10 to 32 across all brands.
Nadia Boujarwah, cofounder and chief executive officer of Dia & Co., said, “This is a very personal full-circle experience [her first job was an intern at DVF] and it’s also a huge step forward for Dia, Diane and 11 Honoré, the luxury platform which we acquired last year. We have worked together in the past and this is really the next chapter. It will really push us forward, and it’s the first time she’ll be on Dia.
“This is a new way for us to work together. We’ll be working on our Marketplace platform, which will give us a ton of flexibility to expand the assortment quickly, and work in much closer collaboration in how we can extend the sizing. It’s something that she [Diane] is very committed to and is something we’ve built our entire business around,” she said.
According to Boujarwah, it’s a reflection of DVF’s commitment to the extended size category, and Dia’s commitment to its customers to continually bring the brands that they want the most with as much variety as possible.
Boujarwah said on Marketplace they work with 200 brands such as Madewell, Third Love and Cosabella, and their acquisition of 11 Honoré last summer added on the luxury division. “What we’ve seen over the last 12 to 18 months is a dramatically more successful way for brands to build extended size businesses through our platform, than they’ve been able to do on their own,” she said.
Overall, she said the Dia business is doing well, and is much stronger in luxury than they anticipated. Luxury accounts for 25 percent of the business. “Adding the 11 Honoré platform on Dia surfaced the amount of demand that was in our existing customer base, and luxury has taken up a much larger percentage of our sales.”
Von Furstenberg’s selection is mostly dresses. “The customer wants to be able to have the exact styles of the main line,” said Bourjarwah. She said given Dia’s expertise in fit, prints, colors and styles that look best, they can build a successful base and build it step by step. DVF’s company does all the manufacturing.
“It’s such a revered and beloved brand. We hear from our customers all the time how much desire there is to participate in the brand that they love,” she said. “We both believe this is just the beginning and there is opportunity to continue to build out,” she said.
Boujarwah said Dia invests heavily in service, which had been lacking in plus-size shopping. They have a full styling service so customers can work one-to-one with stylists, they do personal shopping for customers, and they offer a “try before you buy” service so customers can put a deposit down and try it on at home.