Trunk Club entering women's wear market

For the past six years, Trunk Club has provided a curated clothing service to men who may not necessarily have the time to shop by sending them boxes of clothing and letting them pick and choose what they want and sending what they don't want back. Now, the convenient and trendy service is extending their services to women.

Brian Spaly, Trunk Club's CEO, said that the firm originally never planned to cater to women, but after discovering how many of their clients wives and girlfriends wanted a similar service it just made sense. “Now that we have this partnership with Nordstrom, we are able to leverage their significant resources on the women’s product side,” he was quoted saying to WWD. In 2014, Nordstrom purchased Trunk Club, and since then Trunk Club has been leaning on them for inventory. The women's service will be tested within Trunk Club's store in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles.

The model for the women's service is identical to the men's. Women can speak to a stylist over the phone who will gauge their style and what their needs are, the stylist will then assemble a curated box of clothing from a wide variety of contemporary brands including Vince, Theory, Diane von Furstenburg, Rag & Bone, and Joie. Whatever they like they can keep, whatever they don't like they can send back.

Trunk Club now offering their styling services to women

“We’ve found that the women we work with are even more excited about our service than the men are. They are spending more and they want trunks even more frequently than our male customer,” said Spaly. “The guys that we serve don’t really know that they need to look better. The women know what they are doing. They know what brands they like and they love the idea of having an adviser.” While their new parent company Nordstrom has an in-store personal styling service, there are currently no plans to integrate the two.

To date, Trunk Club hasn't brought on any new staff for the women's service, but, rather, they will train their internal personal stylists and depending on the volume of the women's business will consider new hires. Since Trunk Club was acquired by Nordstrom, they have quietly opened a New York location that's been dubbed "the mansion on Madison." The impressive unit is 25,000-square-feet, and also houses the retailers New York corporate offices, along with 12 branded rooms, which include 23 fitting areas, spread across two floors.

The rooms are sponsored by Trunk Club vendors John Varvatos, Vince, Gant, J Brand, Billy Reid, and DL1961, and it's where the Trunk Club stylists recreate the online experience in-store. The merchandise is kept out of sight on the lower level of the space, so the clothing selection is all on the personal stylists. Trunk Club reportedly takes 40 to 50 appointments a day at the New York store.

While Trunk Club seems to be doing very successfully, they have still declined to post and sales or revenue figures. While Nordstrom may have acquired Trunk Club they still operate as an independent company in Chicago. Their service is truly one of a kind, and that's what has helped them be so successful.

photo:trunkclub.com