Secondhand Plus Size Clothing | Interview with Alysse Dalessandro, Founder of Secondhand Stare

Should you cling across the plus dimension vogue house lengthy sufficient, you’ll doubtless get to know the bubbly and infectious pleasure of Alysse Dalessandro of @ReadyToStare. Alysse is a long-time supporter and member of the TCF group, participating in campaigns and talking on the TCF Style Expo prior to now.

Just lately, she jumped BACK into the enterprise of promoting garments, opening her plus dimension secondhand retailer, Secondhand Stare, on-line.

Discovering secondhand classic and thrift plus dimension clothes in-store will be tough, and Alysse’s store brings that enjoyable “searching via racks” expertise to everybody by way of the web! Additionally, as a fellow plus dimension LGBT blogger, I’m overjoyed to sit down down with Alysse to study her new model and the way the TCF group can help it.

How Secondhand Stare Acquired Began

From planning plus dimension and LGBT journeys overseas to talking at conferences about her expertise with Diabetes, Alysse is a real Sagittarius in that she is at all times on the transfer. And like many entrepreneurs, Secondhand Stare isn’t Alysse’s first clothes and accent enterprise.

Dalessandro’s first classic enterprise began with two mates when she was only a senior in school in Chicago, IL. When these mates moved to New York, she began Able to Stare as a home made jewellery and accent model in 2012 promoting on Etsy. Although classic wasn’t the main target of her store, she at all times had a couple of items on the market within the store.

Aspect be aware: Does anybody else bear in mind the long-lasting chain belts from Alysse? I positive do, they usually’re making a comeback.

Listening to about Alysse’s first enterprise made me interested by how she received the braveness to leap in once more! Having been within the plus dimension vogue house for years, I do know that working a brick and mortar enterprise comes with giant and distinctive challenges.

Alysse’s love for classic runs deep— all the best way again to her center college days. She shared, “As a plus dimension fashion-loving teen, thrifting clothes of all genders gave me extra choices than mainstream shops supplied within the early 2000s. I’ve liked procuring secondhand ever since.”

I significantly love how Alysse factors out thrifting clothes of ALL genders. I can affirm procuring in each sections is an superior method to discover new enjoyable clothes, typically in silhouettes that aren’t at all times seen as “flattering” for plus dimension girls.

Alysse’s Plus Dimension Closet Gross sales

After transitioning into turning into a full-time influencer, Alysse stopped making and promoting merchandise to give attention to plus dimension content material creation. Placing her store apart would solely be short-lived, although, as a result of Alysse missed working it. She began doing closet gross sales in 2016 of her personal gently used plus dimension gadgets to scratch the itch. “I might do them as soon as each few years and at all times to a lot success and pleasure,” says Dalessandro. By 2019, Alysse was doing these closet gross sales a couple of occasions a yr.

“By 2021,” Alysse stated, “I had employed somebody to assist me part-time {photograph} and listing gadgets for my quarterly closet gross sales. I began to get requests from an increasing number of of us that wished to see gadgets of their sizes moderately than simply having the ability to store my gadgets.”

My closet gross sales had been filling a necessity that mainstream vogue wasn’t: a sustainable and accessible method to store plus dimension clothes.

Alysse Dalessandro, Founding father of Secondhand Stare

I need to level out that some retailers might be aware of what Alysse is doing. She pays fashions from sizes 10 – 40 to mannequin items for her retailer. Offhand, I can solely consider half a dozen plus dimension manufacturers that do that. It actually makes me surprise: If a small enterprise like Secondhand Stare can present fashions from sizes 10-40, then why are heavily-resourced plus dimension manufacturers displaying us the identical skinny-fat fashions? *side-eyes closely*

One in every of my favourite elements about Alysse’s journey with Secondhand Stare is you may see how she constructed momentum over a number of years. Typically, the tales we’re advised make it seem to be manufacturers launch in a single day, which often isn’t the case. Listening to concerning the time span of 6 years right here clearly illustrates how Alysse constructed from previous success to get up to now.

Alysse was assembly a necessity mainstream vogue wasn’t: a sustainable and accessible method to store plus dimension clothes. She deliberately saved the costs low to make plus dimension vogue extra accessible to extra folks.

Dalessandro thought, “That is larger than me. I might rework the idea I had developed for promoting my very own gadgets right into a full-blown retailer. By being open on a regular basis (one thing my closet gross sales by no means did) and catering to a full plus dimension vary of 10-40, I might hope to make an actual distinction in serving to extra folks have entry to vogue.” Thus, Secondhand Stare was born.

Dalessandro Pays Homage to Closet Gross sales with Influencer Drops

Along with her dedication to assembling rad editorial photoshoots with actually various fashions, I’ve additionally loved Alysse doing editorial and conceptual shoots for closet gross sales with different influencers.

Alysse gave us the inside track, saying, “As a full-time influencer myself, I clearly perceive the facility of working with influencers. Since Secondhand Stare began as my influencer closet sale, I wished to provide influencers the chance to promote gadgets from their closets in our store. I do know for me that parting with gadgets was robust for me once I was simply donating or promoting to consignment retailers. It felt so impersonal. Doing a devoted closet drop via Secondhand Stare provides the influencer the chance to inform the story behind the garments and join with the oldsters who could also be shopping for the gadgets! Up to now, we have now finished closet sale drops with Elizabeth of SnackinCbus and Courtney of Queer Fat Loud.”

How Able to Stare Sources Their Plus Dimension Clothes

One thing I didn’t know till fairly lately is that one of many hardest (and most rewarding) elements of getting a plus dimension secondhand on-line retailer is sourcing the gadgets to go within the retailer.

I am going to property gross sales, storage gross sales, and flea markets. There’s lots of treasure to be present in issues that folks not want.

Alysse Dalessandro, Founding father of Secondhand Stare

I by no means thought a lot about that course of till I began being educated by way of the web. Seeing folks undergo bins at Goodwill, thrift in several cities, supply gadgets from vogue influencers, and go to property gross sales (I really like Alysse’s updates from property gross sales), I spotted how a lot curatorial work goes into this course of.

Alysse defined, “There are lots of completely different ways in which I discover items to promote on Secondhand Stare. I am going to property gross sales, storage gross sales, and flea markets. There’s lots of treasure to be present in issues that folks not want. There was one native property sale that I waited three hours to get into and I wasn’t the one one. Individuals flew from out of the state to attend this property sale as a result of this girl had a fully iconic closet filled with classic Versace, Chanel, Prada and extra. Sadly, not one of the clothes was plus dimension, however I left with so many wonderful equipment together with chain belts that I can be customizing and making into plus sizes.”

As Alysse was sharing about sourcing all of those equipment (a few of which I’ve snagged), I needed to ask, “How on earth do you arrange all of these things?” Possibly it’s simply me, however I couldn’t think about making a course of to supply, shoot, arrange, after which ship all of those cool gadgets she has in her store.

Alysse defined, “I couldn’t run this enterprise in an enormous metropolis on the funds I’ve. House is a luxurious that turns into accessible whenever you reside in a smaller metropolis like Cleveland. I’ve a studio that’s half picture/video arrange and half workplace house. The Secondhand Stare stock lived in that studio house for some time, however I used to be in a position so as to add a devoted storage room in the identical constructing that now homes our greater than 1000+ gadgets.”

Alysse makes positive to provide a shoutout to her group, saying, “Secondhand Stare is a small however mighty group! Since we’re on-line just for now, all the things is finished on my own and my model supervisor, Asia Waggle. Because the proprietor and inventive director, I deal with all the sourcing, drop themes and the principally un-fun enterprise facet of issues.

Asia handles the each day duties that maintain the store working. They do graphic design and social media, stock administration, listings, delivery, customer support, mannequin bookings and assist to prepare drops and photoshoots. There’s one factor that I do know for positive – I couldn’t run Secondhand Stare with out the inventive genius that Asia brings to the desk.”

What’s Subsequent for Secondhand Stare

One thing we at all times ask indie manufacturers is, “How can we (and the better plus dimension group) help you?” For Secondhand Stare, a model of their first yr of enterprise, there are a couple of methods we will all assist! From Alysse:

• Our greatest problem now’s that we’re nonetheless new. The perfect help that the plus dimension group can do is to share our store and our Instagram so extra plus dimension babes can discover us! Shares, feedback, likes — these all make a distinction for us.
• Store our website! I like to recommend sorting our gadgets from latest to previous to see the most recent drops or procuring by dimension! 
• We purchase clothes! We don’t supply consignment, however we do flat-rate shopping for. We’re on the lookout for high-quality, gently used or new gadgets with tag gadgets in 4X, 5X, 6X, and 7X on a regular basis. We’ll do digital buys within the US the place we pay for delivery for gadgets that match our store in that dimension vary. We additionally often do in-person shopping for in sizes XL-3X for folk within the Cleveland space.

I’ve personally liked seeing the fats pleasure, in addition to queer fats pleasure, on the Secondhand Stare feed. Understanding that fashions had been forged with pleasure and celebration, moderately than making an attempt to appease critics, actually exhibits within the Secondhand Stare visuals and inventive property.

From her satisfaction drop to enjoyable photoshoots and reels, Alysse invitations you and all plus dimension folks to have enjoyable with vogue. She drives this residence, saying, “Secondhand Stare is my approach of rewriting the narrative and letting y’all know YOU CAN WEAR THAT!”

That joie de vivre, the maximalism, the adoration that Alysse shares along with her group— she’s been doing that for greater than a decade. And that very same design and inventive ethos exhibits via in her newest work.

And we, because the plus dimension and fats group, are higher for it.