The inaugural collection will include designs from Hanky Panky, Elomi, Elila and Rya Collection.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, plus-size lifestyle brand Dia & Co. is adding lingerie to the assortment. The collection, which caters to women sizes 14 to 32, will launch with a limited-edition capsule consisting of four brands — Hanky Panky, Elomi, Elila and Rya Collection — but Dia & Co. founder and chief executive officer Nadia Boujarwah said additional brands will be added over time.
“It’s a robust collection for all body types,” Boujarwah told WWD. “And there’s a wide range in sizes so that we can really ensure that within our community these little indulgences and the excitement of these lingerie luxuries are available to everybody.”
The collection, which launches today at dia.com, includes more than 60 sizes for bras and eight sizes in bottoms. In addition to the assortment of bras and underwear, there are also robes, chemises, baby dolls, bodysuits and more. Prices range from $35 to $198 in the limited-edition launch collection.
Boujarwah founded Dia & Co., along with Lydia Gilbert, in 2015 after finding it difficult to find plus-size apparel options as a consumer.
“I’ve always loved fashion; always loved style,” Boujarwah explained. “But I just felt left out from mainstream retail for most of my life. I prided myself in MacGyvering outfits and learning to sew and kind of making due with what I had. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that the experiences that I had were really the furthest thing from unique or personal. It was an experience that was shared by so many women. The average American woman wears between a size 16 and 18, but options within retail start to drop off after a size 12.
“When we founded Dia, we didn’t really have a specific business model that we felt was critical, or a single brand or style that we wanted to be able to bring to market,” she continued. “It was really a question of figuring out how we could serve this community of women as well as we could.”
Since then, the business, which started with ready-to-wear options and accessories from a handful of outside brands, now sells more than 90 brands by way of its e-commerce business, in addition to about a dozen of its own labels. The company also has a subscription service and expanded into activewear in 2018.
“And now we’re launching intimates,” Boujarwah said.
Still, the expansion comes at a time when everyone from Zara to Karl Lagerfeld to swimwear and resortwear designer Miguelina have expanded their assortments to include the innerwear world. Other lingerie brands are launching new categories, such as men’s basics or activewear.
But Boujarwah said Dia offers something unique to the market.
“Plus-size lingerie tends to fall into two buckets: One bucket is a very functional intimates. And then there’s a bucket of hypersexy intimates,” Boujarwah said. “We’re focused on the space in between those two things.
“It really is a reflection of the conversations that we’ve had with customers, finding moments of little self-indulgence and luxury in your day-to-day,” she continued. “I think that’s something we’ve all craved as the pandemic has unfolded.”