Fashion To Figure was co-founded by brothers Michael and Nicholas Kaplan, two of Lena Bryant's great-grandsons. The Kaplans' father, Steven, had been president of Lane Bryant until its sale to The Limited Inc. in 1982. Previously, Nicholas Kaplan had served as a Saks Fifth Avenue department manager and buyer, general merchandise manager at Bluefly, and co-founder of the Designer Warehouse liquidation chain. Michael Kaplan had served as an analyst at Lazard and had previously co-founded an online shopping community for plus-sized women with RRE Ventures. Having grown up hearing stories about how their widowed great-grandmother supported herself by selling the first maternity and full-figure dresses available to American women, Michael and Nicholas Kaplan have explained in interviews that they were drawn to the opportunity to carry on their family's tradition. The brothers took as the company's mission "to make people's lives better through the ultimate full-fashion experience."
Operation
The first Fashion To Figure store opened at the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, New York in October 2004. The second store opened in 2005 at the Livingston Mall in Livingston, New Jersey. By 2011, Fashion To Figure had seven locations in New York and New Jersey. Two additional stores were slated to open in fall 2011. The company launched its online store in 2010, which serves an international customer base. The store caters exclusively to women and teenagers sized 12 to 26. The chain is named for a quote by Lena Bryant, founder of the plus-sized women's clothing chain Lane Bryant. Asked in 1950 by a Glamour magazine interviewer about the secret to her success, Bryant responded, "You should never ask women to conform their figures to fashion, but rather bring fashion to the figure." Unlike most other plus-sized specialty retailers, Fashion To Figure is not a vertically integrated retailer. With an eye to providing consumers with a wide array of full-fashion options, the company sources its inventory from more than one hundred vendors. The company's CEO, Michael Kaplan, has argued that this allows the company to provide plus-sized consumers with more choices and to react more nimbly to fashion trends, à lafast fashion. Shoppers depend upon the assistance of sales associates, known as "stylists," to select the best colors and cuts for their individual needs. Even in 2010, Fashion To Figure had opened a store in the Cross County Shopping Center co-branded with P.S. and Wet Seal. It was later demolished in 2017 for an Ulta Beauty and Sprint. As of March 29, Fashion to Figure stores, one of the many companies that had to close because of the coronavirus pandemic, reported that it had to let 263 people go.
Bankruptcy
In November 2017, the parent company, B. Lane Inc., filed for Chapter 11.
