Want the secondhand scoop?
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Selection, style and a mindset shift are all on deck for visitors to Victoria, B.C.’s newest plus-size store. We talk to the duo behind Fat Sisters Plus Size Vintage & Consignment about their mission — it’s not just about shopping, but belonging
Brenna Strohschein and Erika Peterson are real-life sisters on a mission to change not just the plus-size fashion landscape in Canada, but the deeply held internal beliefs of both those who shop within it and outside of it.
From the name of their shop, Fat Sisters Plus Size Vintage & Consignment, to the way that they treat shoppers wrestling with past trauma, the sisters have created a space that celebrates and elevates plus-size style.
Brenna says new visitors walk in unsure what they are looking for — common, she says, because they’re so used to having to buy whatever fits instead of getting to buy what they like — and are overwhelmed by the selection.
“We’ll say it out loud for them,” she says. “For so long, all you got was size. You never got style.”
At Fat Sisters, they get both.
That moment for the first-time Fat Sisters shopper is pivotal, says Brenna. It challenges them to further define their preferences.
“When you have more than one option, it makes you think, ‘Well, what do I actually want to look like? What do I actually want to feel like?’” she says.
Big questions for someone who either just wandered in off the street, or who heard about a new plus-size store in the area and wanted to poke around.
“Some people are ready for it. And some people aren’t quite there yet,” Brenna says.
The boutique is like any cool-girl shop on the street with its natural light, white-painted brick walls and creaky hardwood floors.
This matters. For years, plus-size consumers had limited choices that usually involved the sterile, white-tiled floors of department stores and chains like Pennington’s and Lane Bryant.
Or, if they were on the upper end of the spectrum of what’s now often called “midsize” (US sizes 10 to 16), they were relegated to a single XL-plus rack hidden at the back of a “straight-size” store.
Two size-inclusive mannequins in the large front window beckon in shoppers from the street. High ceilings give plenty of room for double-stacked racks of coats, dresses, jumpers, sweaters, pants and shirts in sizes L-6X (consignment occasionally brings in sizes beyond 6X, too).
In the centre of the store, denim jeans hang by their belt loops on a large rack. It’s a holy-grail find for anyone who’s tried shimmying into a pair in vain at their local mall.
And then there are the accessories. Stylish secondhand shoes — we spotted a pristine pair of burgundy John Fluevog loafers on our visit — and handbags, plus locally made items like bras and ponchos.
Illustrations of curvy women by artist Mollie Cronin are taped to the walls, smiling serenely down at people as they browse.
The feeling of walking into Fat Sisters, knowing the chances are higher of finding something you like rather than leaving empty-handed, knowing you are in a safe, kind space — well, it’s nothing short of elation.
“When people come in, they’re so, so excited,” says Brenna. “They have lots of emotions.”
There are signs of care throughout. Brenna and Erika have both lived the experiences of their customers, which is what makes shopping at their store so disarming.
Any plus-size shopper who’s squeezed into a tiny fitting-room stall and self-consciously tried to draw its ill-fitting curtain closed will swoon over the fitting rooms at Fat Sisters: spacious, with thick floor-length curtains that fasten down the entire length of the door frame.
There’s a small mirror inside, but the sisters suggest stepping out to use the large one at the back of the store.
It’s for good reason. They want to reclaim and redefine the try-on experience for plus-size shoppers, to make it comfortable.
There are no overeager sales associates tossing clothing you didn’t ask for and know won’t fit over the door. There is no pressure to step out into a public space because there isn’t a mirror inside the room.
Brenna and Erika say they believe everyone deserves to be seen and experience affirmation. They want to share in their customers’ excitement, or help them find something else if they’re not loving what they selected to try on.
“If you feel good, you’re gonna go out,” says Erika. “If you don’t feel good, if you don’t feel confident, you’re not gonna wear it.”
Brenna’s entrepreneur story started the same way many do — her brainchild was born after years of frustration.
She wore plus-size clothing as a teenager, but throughout her 20s shopped in the straight-size sections.
After she had kids, Brenna was back in a larger body and got called to Chicago for work. She found herself out of luck at local malls looking for stylish, appropriate outfits that would fit.
Ordering online was a crapshoot. Despite reports indicating over 50 per cent of Canadian women and 67 per cent of American women wear a size 14 and up, most non-plus brands carry limited sizing — ”out of stock” is a frequent qualifier on many a garment size XL and up, because demand far exceeds supply.
“I was stressed to the max, and cobbled together an outfit,” remembers Brenna. “And then I thought, this is so wrong.”
The inventory issues go deeper: Any given season, a plus-size collection may not include something that meets a shopper’s specific needs or criteria — and because not every retailer offers size-inclusive options, the pool of garments to choose from is smaller in the first place.
And what happens if a shopper doesn’t like the styles available at that very moment? There are a finite amount of choices, so they are forced to take what they can get.
“If you need something [as a straight-sized person], you go get it. It's hard for people who have never had that to understand what it feels like. Your baseline of normal is just so different,” Brenna says.
She got that nagging feeling again when her and Erika’s brother got married and both sisters struggled to find dresses: This should be easier.
Brenna started dreaming of a place where plus-size shoppers could find anything they needed, with rotating vintage and secondhand stock that would provide fresh finds all the time.
So she started one. Online sales kicked off in September 2023, and by February 2024, Brenna asked Erika if she wanted to join her to open a pop-up.
The pop-up turned permanent when they moved into their current bricks-and-mortar space on one of Victoria’s central retail streets just a few months later, in July.
Being able to give people that feeling of being able to get whatever they want is what keeps the sisters going.
“When people come into our store and realize this is what other people feel like when they try on clothing, it kind of makes you want to say a big fuck you to the world for not making that more accessible,” says Brenna.
Continued below
Continued from above
The name “Fat Sisters” carries power, but it’s also been polarizing, says Brenna.
“Before we opened, I announced in a plus-size group online that we were going to open a plus-size consignment shop called ‘Fat Sisters.’ And I got such a blowback because of the name. People said, ‘I will never shop there. I will not support you.’”
The local business community wasn’t excited about the name at first, either.
“They said, if you want to be successful, change your name. People recommended Bad Sisters, Two Sisters. People said, ‘I’ve been in this business for 30 years, trust me, do not do this,’” Brenna remembers.
“And I felt very strongly that they were wrong. I think that our name has helped the people, the demographic that we want.”
Brenna says “Fat Sisters” challenges deeply held beliefs by not just the straight-size population, but the plus-size community, too: that “fat” is bad and undesirable.
Their website says it all: “If saying ‘fat’ makes you uncomfortable, we get it. We live in a world that wants us to want a watered-down version of ourselves (a skinnier version of ourselves). But, that’s so 2004. Fat doesn’t mean lazy, ugly or unworthy. Fat is just an adjective,” it reads.
Brenna says she and Erika grew up surrounded by diet culture, and it had an effect on their feelings of self-love and worth for a long time.
“I don’t want my kids to grow up like that,” says Brenna. “Fat Sisters is so important because I don’t want there to be a secret shame about my body. It is what it is, you know?”
Owning a plus-size consignment and vintage store has been a study in shopper behaviour for Brenna and Erika.
They’re equally skilled at piercing through any doubt a shopper might have about their body or the way they look.
“People sometimes want to fit into the smallest number. So we work on challenging that,” says Erika. “It doesn’t matter the number, you just have to feel good. When people walk out of our store wearing things that they've tried on, that always feels good, because they feel more like themselves than they did when they walked in.”
On the other end, shoppers are often reluctant to wear clothing that is oversized. It’s a stigma long perpetuated by the fashion world: plus-size shoppers should “define their waist” and to not size up garments lest they look like a “tent.”
It’s all code for “how to appear smaller.” It’s also arbitrary, because people of all sizes can wear body-hugging or loose clothing.
“Sizes are made up!” proclaims a size conversion chart in the store.
“People will ask, ‘Does this look too big on me?’” says Brenna. “We immediately ask, ‘How do you feel? Does it feel different because you’ve never tried on something that is bigger than your size?’”
Still, the sisters do what they can to be sensitive to the complex feelings their customers have about size.
Inventory is loosely organized not by size, but by colour. They say it encourages people to look through what appeals to them first, and to ignore numbers because sizes vary so much between brands.
“How we approach different people will depend on the energy they’re giving,” says Brenna. “For some people, the first time they shop with us isn’t the time that we need to change their mindset on fit or size.”
Erika says they encourage people to try on all the sizes, branch out from their usual colour wheelhouse, and take time to consider what they want their style to be.
Now that there’s a place for plus-size consignment clothing in Victoria, Brenna and Erika say they hope Fat Sisters helps people feel like they can switch up pieces in their wardrobe as easily and freely as straight-size people do.
Plus-size shoppers tend to keep their clothing for longer because fit is everything, says Brenna. “If your body changes, you don’t get rid of it, because what if your body changes again? I know we’re sitting on such untapped potential in the city for plus stuff.”
The sisters periodically open their consignment service to round out their inventory. Consignors receive a portion of the selling price of their items. A list of accepted items is on the Fat Sisters website.
And for those who don’t want to consign or who don’t have acceptable items for consignment, they can donate their items to the store, knowing those pieces will reach the intended audience.
Donated items allow the sisters to offer deep discounts to ensure price accessibility, like a recent $5-a-piece sidewalk sale and thrift-store prices on some pieces. Proceeds from the sale for many of their donated items go to local charities or causes.
It’s all in the name of building a thriving community. The sisters are now hosting pop-ups of other small businesses in their storefront, curating surprise boxes of clothing that far-away fans can order from their website, and building a 10,000-strong Instagram following chronicling their daily activities in the store.
And they’re part of a small but growing number of plus-size vintage specialty stores in North America.
“We truly have seen that the impact of clothing on people is so powerful,” says Brenna. “A lot of it is about feeling seen and feeling special. Because when you have this secret shame, you’re not feeling special, you’re feeling like shit.”
The effect has been felt by their customers. Sweep through Fat Sisters’s 300-plus Google reviews and the emotion comes radiating off the screen.
“Gone are the days of walking into a vintage store with your friends only to hold back tears because there isn’t a single item in your size,” reads one.
“I have spent a lifetime going with friends from thrift store [to] thrift store and rarely being able to try anything cute and shopping here healed a piece of me,” reads another.
“On bad days, we just read reviews and cry,” says Erika. “We have these moments of, ‘Can we do this? This is so tiring.’ But we read the impact it has and we’re like, oh yeah, we can freaking do this.”
“It’s really hard, but worth it.”
___
Fat Sisters Plus Size Vintage & Consignment is in Victoria, B.C.
