I love Eloquii
In full disclosure, I worked for The Limited Brands at Bath and Body Works seasonally at Woodfield (Schaumburg, IL) from 2004-2007 while working as a teacher.
I love Eloquii and I am very upset about the news that they are closing up shop. I’ve bought several items from them online starting at about this time last year. I’ve bought mainly sweaters, jewelry and other shirts as I feel that they are easier to buy online rather than pants, dresses and skirts. However, lately I have bought a few skirts and dresses and some fit and some do not.
What I love about Eloquii is The Limited style. I used to dress in The Limited all of the time. The Limited was my staple store for clothes. When I started gaining more weight, I was sad that I couldn’t fit into their style. I am in my early 30s and Torrid and Forever 21 just aren’t my style with bows, cat prints and more alternative wear. The only things I’ve bought at Forever 21 are cardigans because NOTHING else looks professional to me as a teacher. Asos is difficult for me to order online because I don’t know what size I would be and it also has that bows, cats, prints and more alternative wear that I don’t like. I like the geometric shapes and clean lines of The Limited. When I spoke to the owner of Blair Chic Boutique (@blair_chic ), she mentioned that she opened the boutique because she was sick of going to events and parties where women had the same Lane Bryant dress on from the store that was in her closet (or she had on). Eloquii gives me a variety in my clothing as I don’t always have to go to Lane Bryant.
Eloquii opened a store at The Limited at Watertower in Chicago. I thought this would be great. I’ve been there a few times actually to return things from online and I’ve bought other items there. I’ve gone into the Watertower store and tried to buy leggings and tights and they were sold out. My response, “Good, then they will continue to have this in the store.” Though they added Eloquii to this Limited, I knew that they needed to add the line to Woodfield’s Limited to be truly successful (and before Xmas). A few months ago I was worried that they weren’t adding Eloquii to more stores. Woodfield in Schaumburg, IL is a bigger mall than Mall of America in the way of retail space. People venture there all of the time to go shopping. Oakbrook Mall also is a great mall for them to add themselves into.
Since Eloquii aren’t in the big malls here in the Chicagoland area, I know that they have had some poor marketing. I can tell because as I walk around downtown Chicago and other places, I see no one in their clothes. In fact, I wore an Eloquii shirt to Xmas. Most of the women in my family are plus size. They asked me where I got my shirt. I told them Eloquii and they never heard of the brand. These are women that like to shop at MALLS in the SUBURBS of CHICAGO. The fact that they don’t know about his brand is really bad taste. Possibly even The Limited could have had a sign out front saying, “Shop our Plus Size Brand at Eloquii.com.”
Eloquii can be unique. I see very few people wearing Eloquii around town and this is something that I do like actually. I like that other people don’t have the clothes that I wear from Eloquii. I think one of the downfalls of the brand is that they made many of the same clothes and prints from The Limited to Eloquii and weren’t always very unique. At times, I did not purchase items from Eloquii after looking at The Limited website. If they both had the same printed shirt or dress, I did not order it. So many women wear The Limited and I don’t want to be their clone.
One of the things I think hurt Eloquii was the lack of free shipping. When they had free shipping and good sales, I was ordering clothes at least monthly. My co-workers noticed. My students noticed. I was able to add more splash of color to my wardrobe with a brand that I love, The Limited. However, when free shipping went away (around the time Eloquii started in stores), I lacked the motivation to purchase items online. In fact, I rarely went into the store myself at Watertower.
One of the side effects of Eloquii and ordering new clothes is that I lost weight. When I started feeling better about myself and what I was wearing, it was motivation for me to lose more weight. Going from a 18/20 to a 14/16 in Eloquii clothes felt great. I actually have two button down sweaters from Eloquii in both of those sizes. Since I liked the sweater so much, I had to get it into the small size that I am now. Possibly someday I will fit back into The Limited clothes.
My suggestion for The Limited and Eloquii is to keep plus size going. Instead, call it The Limited PLUS since you didn’t market Eloquii very well. If you had some extended sizes in ALL STORES, I think this would benefit the women of America that love your style of clothing.
