No matter what your dress size, shape or height, we all want to feel fabulous when we get dressed in the morning, or for a night out.

Perfect Dress Company, which was launched in Bournemouth earlier this year, has taken a new approach to fashion, using real women of all sizes to showcase its designs, creating dresses that cater for slight weight fluctuations and aim to create confidence among its clients.

The idea for the brand was born two years ago when the team at Sunny Bird PR decided to create their own company, in a bid to experience what life is like for their own clients.

Determined to do things differently, extensive research and surveys helped them discover what women really wanted from their clothes.

"Something like 78 per cent of women felt under-represented in the fashion industry," says Sunny of their findings.

"The size of the women, the colour of the women, the height of the women – you only see size 6-8 women, who are 5ft 10ins tall. We said what about having a model of every single size on our website?"

Having recently been diagnosed with Graves' Disease, an auto-immune condition that attacks the body, Sunny had put on three stone in weight herself, going from a size 8-10 to a size 18 in three months, and was struggling to find flattering clothes for herself.

"I would order 20 dresses from ASOS or Next, and would be lucky if one of them fitted me," she says.

"You get frustrated because you think it's your body. We talked to women about how dresses made them feel – shopping experiences were not great for them. We put a survey out to people saying had finding the right outfit stopped them from doing things? One girl didn't go to her best friend's wedding, another girl said she didn't go for a promotion. This all started to shape the brand."

With a focus on finding models of all sizes for the website, Sunny, 40, says she was stunned to find model agencies could not help.

"We knew it was really important we had to have eight models, we do size 6-8 to 20-22," she explains. "Model agencies' plus size models were size 12 – it was ridiculous. So we did a model competition. We had 200 people apply and had finals in London and announced the winners at the end of February at our launch part at NEO."

Teaming up with FIRST Model Management, Sunny offered two one-year modelling contracts with the firm and all eight models won a one-year modelling contract with the Perfect Dress Company. The team also reached out to Instagram influencers to take part in a photo shoot, selecting real women with their own stories to tell.

"We decided one of our USPs was that our dresses will fit you whether you go up or down a dress size," adds Sunny. "We use a fabric that has a four-way stretch. We changed our sizing to dual sizing. They are 8-10, 10-12, then 12-14 etc.

"So from our focus groups, the three things we decided to do differently were models in each size, dresses that fit you if you go up or down a size and our unique dual sizing. Our dresses have been designed to flatter and slim your figure."

Initially launching with three dresses in different variations, including the Tummy Trimmer, Drop A Dress Size and the Nip and Tuck dress, the team have a further 12 creations planned for release this year, plus another 24 being worked on, including varying colours and prints which have been voted on by consumers.

"I want it to be that go-to dress in your wardrobe, that you know never lets you down," explains Sunny. "I want you to be able to come back and be able to buy that dress in a different colour or a different neckline or a different pattern.

"I definitely think our difference is that we've been driven by our audience," she adds. "There have been so many learning curves and so many disasters on the way, but I'm really proud of what we've achieved as a brand and that we are listening to what our consumers want."

 

perfectdresscompany.com