Women Need to Support Women

When we were founding Dia, we knew we had a great idea — to style and create truly fashion-forward clothing for plus-size women.

But starting a business is tough, and as two female founders, pitching a business by women, for women, we discovered it was even harder.

We got hundreds of “no”s. Hundreds! What kept me going? My experiences as a plus-size woman — like having to design and make my own prom dress as a teenager just to be able to wear something that I loved. And the fact that more than 100 million women had similar stories.

What turned all those “no”s into “yes”es? Help from other women came, and Dia was off and running.

Now it’s our turn to pay it forward. We’re launching an initiative to help other female-founded plus-size retailers stay in business during these challenging times.

The Dia Holiday Market will help small brick-and-mortar businesses across America reach more customers through Dia’s amazing community. We’ll be offering plus-size boutiques the opportunity to be part of a digital boutique on our retail site, free of charge, and we’ll rally our 5 million-strong audience of passionate, supportive and dynamic women to support them.

The strategy is two-fold: Access to Dia’s robust marketing and sales resources will help with the nuts-and-bolts reality of keeping a business afloat during the holiday season in a pandemic. If neighborhood retailers are to survive, they are going to need a hand.

The second piece is that through Dia, retailers can reach our extraordinarily supportive community across the country, who we know will embrace and support these entrepreneurs.

COVID has had a catastrophic impact on retail, and plus-size businesses are on especially shaky ground. Plus-size shoppers are navigating a limited landscape to begin with; if their local stores shut down, their options are even more narrow.

It’s time to harness the power of strong women to lift each other up! We know intimately well the experience of being entrepreneurs. And we know that against the backdrop of COVID, the difficulties of owning a business are heightened, and only extremely more so for women.

To start or grow a company, you need a lot of people to take a chance on you. This holiday season, we’re asking the Dia community to rally together to help female founders thrive. So encourage your favorite female-owned boutique to join us!