Universal Standard is a challenger breaking down barriers to access with a new, size-inclusive approach to womenswear. In its first three years, the brand has gained impressive momentum, raising funding from high-profile investors like Natalie Massanet, Blake Mycoskie and Gwyneth Paltrow and partnering with J.Crew on a successful capsule collection. Vogue called its first bricks-and-mortar store in New York ‘the most size-inclusive store ever’. We spoke to its founders about what it means to be a Democratiser fighting for ‘Freedom Fashion’, fixing a broken industry, and setting the new normal.

Why did you create Universal Standard?

Alexandra: I used to write about fashion, so I got to sit and watch these incredible designs walking the runway, knowing that I was not able to participate in any of it. I could write about it and tell other people about it, but none of those things were for me – I was just not welcome to participate.

When we sat down to think about what it means to democratise fashion, the idea was that brands probably should be size-agnostic because fashion should be about creating beautiful things for anyone who wants to buy them. Whatever barriers you have, they should be about taste or maybe budget. But they should never be ‘I’m going to start with what brands cater to my size, and then out of that, I will pick how I present myself in the world.’

We just thought that it was completely backwards. It was the established way, the historical way of fashion, and we just thought, ‘This has got to go.’ We need to realign some pretty big ways of thinking in order to create a new space for all women.

Why is it so important that the brand offers all sizes?

Polina: We see it as unifying fashion. There is arbitrary segregation that has been so ingrained in the fashion industry that it has simply been accepted as the norm – nobody even questions it anymore.

So, when we came to the space and really looked at it with our bright, naïve minds, we just thought, ‘Why is this line here, and who decided it should be here? And why does it even exist at all?’ To us, it was not about making another plus-size brand; that’s antithetical to what we wanted to create in the world. We wanted to start building a world where there is no plus size because size is simply not relevant to the fashion and style conversation.

Alexandra: There’s a very messy truth behind plus-size fashion in general that people don’t realise. It’s not about the size alone; it’s about what is on offer in that size. What you have on offer in straight-size versus the plus-size world is completely different. You’re stepping down fathoms in terms of what is modern, what is interesting, and what is cool. It’s always at least a year and a half to two years behind the trend. It’s made as fast fashion, so the cheapest kinds of material. You’re not allowed to be on a par with your peers who have a smaller body, and that affects a lot of things in your life. It’s not just about the dress you throw on your back. It has a knock-on effect that runs very deep, both externally and internally.

Our slogan is ‘All of us. As we are.’ So you are the archetype. No matter who you are, you should have great clothes that fit beautifully and that extend beyond a single lifespan within your wardrobe. They should be good enough to be hand-me-downs. They should be democratically priced. And we believe that any woman should be able to interpret our clothes on her body and into her personal style and be the best version of herself that she can be.

How do you make decisions about where to commit your resources?

Polina: I think that we always look at it from the perspective of the customer and investing in the customer. So most of the things that we do upfront are much more expensive than the investment that most brands make, be it photographing each item on every size that we offer, or fitting each item on every single size that we offer and making micro-adjustments, rather than grading by formula. Or it’s investing in the quality of fabrics and making sure that we develop our fabrics from scratch and find factories that are skilled and willing to invest and work with us. Because a lot of these factories have never had to manufacture clothing in such a large size range or consider the consumer.

The way we always get around investment is we know that by investing in our customers there are benefits on the other side. We look at our repeat purchase rates, and we know that if we continue exceeding our customers’ expectations, they’re going to continue exceeding our expectations and will buy consistently from us. We look at our return rates and know that because we’re investing so much into fit upfront, our return rates are much lower than the industry average because the customer gets a consistent fit.

I do think it’s difficult to calculate in the beginning, but you almost have to take a gamble and know that if a customer feels like we have their back, as with the Fit Liberty programme, they’re more likely to buy from us again than from another brand. So from a financial perspective, it still makes sense.

Partnerships are a key strategy for challengers – can you tell us more about your partnership with J.Crew?

Alexandra: I was speaking on a CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) panel, the first panel ever on plus sizes that they’d held. J.Crew was in the audience, and they approached us afterwards and said, ‘Look, we really like what you had to say. We want to be much more inclusive. We want to show our desire for diversity, but we really want to do this right, and we would love to learn from your experiences. Can you take us through the process with a capsule collection, and also in terms of helping us grade across our existing merchandise?’

Honestly, as somebody who has always had a really hard time finding what to wear, my first thought was not, ‘This is going to be great for Universal Standard’. Instead, it was how amazing it was that a household brand, a household Americana name like J.Crew, will suddenly open its door to 70% of women who have never had access to its stuff before. We just thought in terms of changing the mindset that we exist to change. We thought it was a really amazing opportunity to go in there and start showing the whole industry that it’s doable. You can do it well. You can do it beautifully. You’re going to get accolades. It’s going to be welcome. We just thought it was a really terrific way to present the whole concept to the world.

Polina once said, ‘If J.Crew had been making my size, we probably wouldn’t have started Universal Standard’, and so we saw it from that perspective – how wonderful for all those people who will suddenly have the chance to shop a brand that they’ve always coveted, and couldn’t participate in before.

As a challenger brand with a very broad target, how do you approach media and communications? How do you reach ‘every woman’ without the budget for a Super Bowl ad?

Polina: We view customer service as the best form of marketing. We want anyone who has ever had any interaction with us to go away and tell people because they expected something from our customer service team, and they blew their minds with how they were treated. So that has been our approach to getting the word out thus far.

For the majority of acquisition it has been earned media. So, part of this is that the tide is moving in the right direction and that people are interested in this space. And, because we are doing something new and different, we are being approached for these types of conversations. Part of it is us going out and doing everything possible to shout our story from the rooftops.

What is the ambition for Universal Standard?

Alexandra: When I try to think to myself, ‘What is it that we’re doing?’, it sounds very lofty, but it is nothing short of really changing the way this broken industry has been operating. It’s broken, and it’s broken for a reason. I think that we’re going to pull it onto a different track and really create something that is overdue and accessible to a lot more people. The knock-on effect of that is that it changes people’s minds about what is beautiful, who is deserving and what is worthy of excellence.

Polina: We want to set the new normal, plain and simple. So, in five years or fewer, people won’t even remember the other way of doing things because this is the way they’ll think it should be and always has been.

Overthrow II, by eatbigfish & PHD, explores 10 of the most powerful strategies and mindsets used by today’s challengers to disrupt their markets. Get your copy at overthrow2.com.