Rue21 turns to plus-size fashion as a safe haven

Following the closure of big names in the teen apparel niche, Rue21 is looking into reaching out to teenagers and young adults by using social media. Also, the retailer is integrating its brick-and-mortar stores with its e-commerce and has expanded into plus-size clothing as a safe haven.

In this vein, “We feel that it's a game changer,” said Stephanie Fisch, Rue21's executive director and wife of CEO Bob Fisch.

“Going after under served markets is what we do. We can totally dominate this market niche,” assured Fisch earlier this months, in regards to the plus-size fashion niche.

In an interview with Pittsburgh Gazzette, Rue21’s CEO advanced that they started testing the new line last year, in November and that circa 20 stores offered this collection in the last quarter.

Next step is to distribute the new collection across over 1,000 out of its 1,200 stores over the next several years.

“We will continue to open new stores, and new fashion will be our primary focus,” Dirk Armstrong, senior vice president, director of stores, wrote in an email, published the ‘Pittsburgh Gazette’.

Despite not publishing reports since it was taken private the company’s CEO said Rue21’s annual sales now exceed 1 billion dollars, well ahead the 900 million dollars in the fiscal year that ended in February 2013, Rue21’s last as a public company.