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| May 1998
Professional Insider: Fashion
Jewels En PlusThe plus-size woman has stopped apologizing and started buying. Do you know what she's looking for in jewelry? by Adrienne Weinfeld-Berg
The young woman is pretty, fashion-conscious and plus-sized. She's also an up-and-coming socialite in your town, and you eagerly offer her a king's ransom in jewels to wear to a special benefit she chairs. At the event, you lay before her your treasures. She seems oddly nonplussed, but puts on some jewelry. Later her friend confides the socialite is mortified because the necklace you brought is too tight and she feels like a fool wearing it. Not the feeling you hoped she would have wearing your merchandise. What Plus-Size Women WantThe plus-sized, defined by clothing manufacturers as size 12 and up, comprise 62% of American women. They don't want your sympathy; they don't want lectures about losing weight. They want high-style jewelry that fits – and if you don't provide it, someone else will capture this marketing opportunity.
"We see scant differences between what larger and regular-size customers demand," says Roger E. Eulau, president and CEO of The Forgotten Woman, a chain of specialty boutiques catering to larger women. Advice for JewelersWith tony department stores cashing in on the trend, jewelers should hop on the bandwagon too. "Retailers should talk much more with their vendors and work more closely with designers when addressing the larger customer," says Cindy Edelstein, president of the Jewelers Resource Bureau, a New York City marketing company. "Why can't a designer offer capsule sample collections of items especially sized for the larger customer to be shown on the sales floor?" Smart merchandising to this consumer means having the appropriate jewelry in the right size at the right time, she says, and there should be a better choice of delicate and bold pieces. Designers should change the scale of their pieces, not necessarily the size. "A chain should be longer, for example, but if there is an accompanying small or large pendant, that piece should be left alone," she says. Form is important, says Patricia Daunis, president of the jewelry design firm bearing her name. "Since larger women tend to have oval faces, I'll do a longer earring and necklace to elongate this area," she says. "Earrings usually have to be scaled to cover larger earlobes. Rings are bolder because I don't think a diminutive ring looks right for this woman." Huge cuffs with lots of mass are key for this designer, as are substantial link bracelets to wear alone or layered around wrists. New York City designer Maija Neimanis is a larger woman who wears small and large pieces and offers the same options to her customers. "There are so many different-sized, individually fashion-minded, plus-size women who wear my pieces that I don't follow any hard and fast rules for my collections," she says. Neimanis offers variously sized bee pins, earrings, pendants and brooches in her signature 22k gold ancient-inspired motifs. "I feel there are only advantages in designing fabulous jewelry for the larger customer, as she can carry off bold, magnificent pieces that would overpower small women," she says.
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