Retail Is Undergoing a Rebirth, Says Eloquii’s Mariah Chase

Retail Is Undergoing a Rebirth, Says Eloquii's Mariah Chase
Allison Collins
We're in the midst of a retail rebirth, according to Mariah Chase, chief executive officer of plus-size women's fashion company Eloquii. The rebirth concept falls in line with Eloquii's own story. The brand was originally conceived as a digitally native fast-fashion line under The Limited for women who "lapsed out of" the brand's core size offerings — but it was killed 18 months after the operation got started. Eloquii sells fashion-forward clothes in sizes 14 to 28. "What happened after that was a digitally driven social media-born outcry from the customer saying, 'Hey, wait a second Limited, we have so few options to begin with and you've just taken away our favorite one.' Mistake," said Chase. But the company made a comeback with its own web site in 2014 and no plan to venture into retail. "When I was talking to investors at that time they would say, 'So stores aren't going to be part of your plan right?' To which I'd respond, 'Oh no, don't worry — we're a digital business.'" But as a company that has a heavy focus on listening to customer feedback, when Eloquii's customer started demanding a store, the brand listened. It opened its first brick-and-mortar outpost outside of Washington on March 1. "If we

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