PLUS-SIZES Shopping-trip disaster sparks e-business

A bad experience led one shopper to start her own company.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
ST. LOUIS -- The idea for Phyllis Librach's e-business was born from her teenage daughter's homecoming-dress disaster.
As she combed malls for a gown two years ago, Librach's daughter, Mickey, was frustrated and angered by the paltry offering of plus-size dresses, which were "dowdy and dumpy" compared with the hipper fashions available to thinner girls.
Inspired, Librach, then a career journalist, launched a Web site aimed at selling fashionable dresses to young women just like her daughter.
One year and $100,000 of invested capital later, she says her fledgling business, Sydney's Closet, is a hit and already profitable.
Librach, who left her job at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to run Sydney's Closet full time, expects to post $1 million in annual sales within two years.
"We've had such success because we really understand this consumer," said Librach, 55, who operates the business from her home. "Not only does she want to look good, she wants to feel good. We've turned a very difficult shopping experience into a very easy one."
Here's how Sydney's Closet works: The Web site, www.sydneysclo-set.com, allows visitors to browse through a stock of available dresses that Librach has given names such as "Awesome Evening" and "Screen Goddess." The site features dresses worn by a mixture of thin and plus-size models.
How it works
After selecting a dress, a customer can order it online in sizes ranging from 14 to 44, or call a toll-free help line for assistance. Librach says her staff returns all calls within 24 hours.
While Librach keeps a small inventory of the most popular dresses in her living room, she sends most orders directly to a manufacturer. The dress is then shipped to Librach, who sends it out to the customer.
Librach says many of her customers find Sydney's Closet through an Internet search after growing frustrated with a lack of fashionable, plus-size dresses on department store racks. Others are drawn to the site by word of mouth.
For many, "finding a dress has always been a horrible experience," said high school senior Michelle Parsons, who bought her size 18 prom dress from Sydney's Closet this year.
Parsons says she last wore a formal dress at a freshman dance, but had since abandoned any interest in attending formal events because of the difficulty in finding a dress.
While Parsons expects to make a few adjustments when she receives her dress through the mail, this marks the first time she's happy with a dress that comes in her size, she said.
The market for plus-size dresses is "not being met at all in the department stores," Parsons said.
Research
Librach launched Sydney's Closet in early 2002 after much preparation. Following her daughter's shopping disaster, she spent months researching the market for plus-size formal dresses.
She found this: Though retailers often snub plus-size women, six out of 10 American women are size 14 or higher. "Plus-size women are the majority, not the minority," she said.
And Librach discovered something else about the plus-size apparel market: There are more women in that category every year.
Convinced she had identified a forgotten consumer, Librach started a precursor to Sydney's Closet called SoWhatIf.com. The Web site, which she ran out of her home, linked visitors to other sites that sell plus-size clothes.
After succeeding with that initial foray into the apparel business, Librach spun off Sydney's Closet, which was named for her late father, Sidney Brasch. She says she has invested $100,000 of her own money in the business.
The Web site gets more than 200,000 visitors a month, she says.
In 2002, Sydney's Closet sold 400 dresses. This year, the site has equaled that figure in the first quarter alone and is on pace to quadruple it by year's end, Librach says. She expects to sell 5,000 dresses in 2005.
While the site now operates with five part-time staff members, Librach still runs it out of her home. That will soon change. She is looking for a spot to house her inventory and also is considering opening a showroom.