NEW YORK — Monif Clarke has been a size 18 ever since she can remember.
“I probably came out of the womb as a size 18,” said Clarke, noting that her quest for contemporary plus sizes has never been easy. “The midmarket, plus-size level is just not there. You can find expensive plus-size clothing and cheap clothing you’d want to throw away after one season, but nothing in the middle.”
Clarke sought to fix the problem by creating Monif C. Plus Sizes, a contemporary collection ranging in size from 14 to 28.
Frustrated with the contemporary category, two years ago Clarke started visiting trade shows like the Fashion Coterie in New York. She asked vendor after vendor if they offered plus sizes, but the response was always the same.
“They looked at me like I had horns coming out of my head,” she said. “Their collections stopped at a size 10. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t going beyond those sizes. I think designers want to create a line without a lot of fuss, and to get a great fit in a great fabric, it’s not as simple as upsizing a size 8 to a size 20.”
Clarke, who has a bachelor’s degree in math and computer science from Rutgers University, began taking continuing education classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology and got to work on her first collection for fall 2005. She immediately began to see what worked on a plus-size figure and what didn’t. Empire waists were flattering, and so were A-line dresses and skirts in rich velvet fabrics. Fabrics without stretch didn’t work. Fabrics like silk and rayon jersey were forgiving. Darting on pants was crucial.
“I want our plus-size girls to be the ones everyone is looking at,” Clarke said. “I don’t want them to think they’re dowdy.”
Clarke, the daughter of immigrants from Barbados, isn’t shying away from color, a characteristic that she said sets her apart from most plus-size designers.
“I want to dispel the rule that plus-size women should wear black and dark colors,” she said. “I want to play with colors and textures.”
Related Galleries
Key colors for the spring 2006 collection include blue, orange, lilac and mauve.
The wholesale price range o f the Monif C. Plus Sizes collection is between $53 for tops and $145 for dresses. Skirts wholesale for $68 to $85. The line is carried by 45 specialty stores, such as Vive La Femme in Chicago, Flaunt in Nashville and Bella Fuchsia in Cheshire, Conn. The collection is also available online at monifc.com.
Clarke expects the wholesale volume for 2006 to reach $250,000.
“Our Web site has gained surprisingly strong customers overseas,” she said. “We’ve shipped directly to customers in Australia, London, Germany and Hawaii.
“I get about 50 to 60 e-mails a week from customers saying, ‘I’m so happy you’re here,'” said Clarke, adding that she hopes to expand into different categories, including lingerie and footwear. “I wear a size 11 shoe. I would love to do sexy footwear for the underserved market.”
“People in this industry are recognizing that the contemporary plus-size market is here,” she continued. “The customer is here and is willing to spend the money.”