Women's clothing is often made with little to no input from the wearer herself. Designs are created in studios, selected in boardrooms, and stitched in factories, and the process leaves us at times with garments that miss the mark. But what if, instead, we actually asked women what was missing from their wardrobe? Their answers might surprise you.
Enter ELOQUII: the trend-driven fashion brand for women sizes 14+ that, for the first time in its five-year history, crowdsourced an entire collection, in collaboration with Refinery29. The result is a capsule of outfits that embody the spirit and tenacity of the women who wear them. What do we mean by "crowdsourcing"? After surveying more than 1,000 women across the U.S. and hosting three digital forums with 29 Ambassadors, Refinery29 x ELOQUII led the design of the collection, made for sizes 12 to 28, with feedback from the community itself. Joining forces with our Ambassadors — who had a hand in designing the collection from start to finish — we were able to create something from scratch that is as authentic as it is stylish. For women who have historically been left out of trending fashions and sample sizing, that's no small thing.
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"It’s just wild to me because I’ve never had any sort of experience like this," says Brianna Allum, one of the Ambassadors who joined the Refinery29 and ELOQUII teams for the lookbook and video shoot. "The fact that everyone was so concentrated on all of us feeling like we mattered, and that we consistently matter, and that we have value in this — I can’t describe it properly.”
The Refinery29 x ELOQUII collection was christened The Weekender for its versatility and timelessness, to take its wearer seamlessly through her Friday night to Sunday evening. This is for the everyday woman in her everyday life — out to brunch, on a date, in the car on her way to an upstate getaway. Simply put, these are the clothes for those universal moments we all experience and enjoy.
"There’s four other women and myself who come from different backgrounds, have different personalities, different looks, and we all can agree, when we were looking through the clothes — we love all of this," says Ambassador Naja Innis. "It was like we felt seen."
The Refinery29 x ELOQUII Weekender is available starting today, online and in ELOQUII stores. Watch the video above to go behind the scenes of the making of the lookbook, and explore the whole collection here.