Dress-for-Success Shop Has a Large Following : Store Buys and Sells Secondhand Full-Size Fashions, but Doesn’t Treat Its Customers Like Second-Class Citizens

Carla Swenson can still recall the ugly fate that befell a batch of beautiful career clothes she’d outgrown and given to a friend.

“I was over at her house a couple of weeks later, and I saw my $100 silk blouse sitting in her dog’s bed,” says Swenson, a note of disgust in her voice.

At the time, she didn’t know how else to dispose of clothes that no longer fit her body or her taste. Consignment stores, which resell used clothing, didn’t want her Size 16 castoffs.

Now those castoffs go to her own consignment store, My Secret Place, which buys and sells previously worn clothing for big women.

Swenson and a friend, Daris Birt, opened My Secret Place on a hunch that other big women were having trouble finding and recycling their old clothes.

Knowing how unpleasant shopping for clothes can be to those who can’t fit into a Size 14, they have sought to make their store as inviting as possible.

Inside the shop’s pale pink interior, a tall armoire houses beaded evening dresses. Comfortable red velvet chairs offer respite to weary shoppers. Lacy lingerie and feather boas dangle from the walls.

Yet it’s the shop owners’ attitude that customers find most comforting.

“Customers don’t feel put down around here because of their size,” Birt says. “They’re used to people in department stores looking down their noses and telling them, ‘I’m sorry we don’t have anything in your size.’ ”

Big women have long been ignored by the fashion industry. Far less merchandise and fewer styles are available in big sizes.

“Clothing doesn’t come easy for large women,” Swenson says. “We’re talking quality clothing, not double-knit polyester.”

At My Secret Place, there’s plenty of large clothing to choose from, with an emphasis on career wear. Racks of blouses, suits and dresses fill the back of the shop. There’s an entire rack devoted to plus-24 sizes--hard to find even in large-sized women’s shops.

“We’ve had people wear things home,” Birt says. “They’re ecstatic.”

Customers come from as far away as Los Angeles and San Diego to visit the shop.

Those who have “changed size,” as Swenson delicately describes any weight gain or loss, find they can buy a new wardrobe or sell off an old one.

Customers pay about 50% or less of a garment’s original retail value. A $500 suit might go for $125 here.

The store recently offered an evening dress with a fuchsia beaded top and satin skirt for $65, a black suit for $60 and a white polyester blouse for $14. One could even buy a mink coat for $1,400, a coat that would probably fetch $6,000 new.

In addition to their consigned clothes, Swenson and Birt stock a large selection of new lingerie, including lace teddies and silky gowns. They know their customers want to look pretty.

“You just don’t find a lot of pretty lingerie in large sizes. It’s almost impossible,” says Elaine Hall, sales representative for the store.

“Lingerie isn’t our best money-maker, but it’s really rewarding” to offer it, Swenson says.

Before opening their store, Swenson and Birt worked as sales managers for a cosmetics company. Both were avid shoppers and loved bargain hunting. Yet Swenson felt frustrated because she had trouble finding clothes in her size, while Birt, who fluctuates between a Size 8 and 12, had no problems.

“Daris could find real nice things. I couldn’t find anything,” Swenson says.

During one shopping trip, Swenson overheard a conversation between two big women as one prepared to buy a new dress:

“She was saying, ‘I don’t know how I can fit this in my closets--they’re already bulging,’ ” she recalls.

That sparked the idea for a shop that sold used clothing in large sizes. Swenson and Birt had been looking for a business of their own, so three years ago they opened My Secret Place in Fountain Valley.

At first they wondered if what the other consignment store owners said was true, that “bigger women wore their clothes out,” Swenson says. They worried they wouldn’t have enough used clothes to sell. Within six months, however, the store was filled.

“We were ouching for space. We kept having to order more hangers,” Swenson says.

A year ago, they moved into their Huntington Beach store so they could triple their space and be in the same shopping center with two other consignment stores, Christine’s Place for children’s and maternity clothes and Born 2 Shoppe for regular-sized women’s clothing.

My Secret Place now has 2,000 customers on its mailing list and 500 consignors who have sold clothes through the shop.

Consignors get 40% of the proceeds, and they soon learn that Swenson and Birt don’t accept everything that passes through their door.

“We are not a thrift store. We’re not going to have blouses for 50 cents or take just anything,” Swenson says. “We want really good items, not the well-loved, well-worn things.”

One former customer still mails her clothes from Washington to sell.

“We get a lot of people changing sizes who are excited about being able to give their clothes to others who’ll appreciate them,” Swenson says.

What isn’t sold after 90 days is returned to consignors or donated to a battered women’s shelter.

Swenson and Birt will even help customers weed out their closets with a wardrobe consultation. For $20 an hour, they’ll come to their house, dig through their closets and help them decide what’s flattering, then offer to sell the rest.

“One lady had six carloads of clothes,” Swenson says.

Their greatest satisfaction comes from outfitting customers for special occasions, such as job interviews or cruises, who would not have been able to afford brand-new clothes.

“It’s really rewarding to see someone starting work and being able to get an entire wardrobe for what they might spend on one suit,” Birt says.

Hall remembers one woman who came into the shop a few weeks before her wedding.

“She’d been all over looking for a dress. She’d already bought one, but every time she put it on, she cried,” she says.

“She came here and found a light pink dress that fit her beautifully. She looked perfect, and her fiance was beaming.”