The history of Preloved Plus-Size

Preloved Plus-Size was born in County Wicklow, Ireland in July 2020. I was living in my parent's house at the time and my wardrobe was wayyy too full! At first, I started selling clothes on Depop to clear space in my overflowing closet and to make a bit of extra cash. This worked wonders. I remember making 50 euros overnight and thought to myself, there's obviously a lack of big sizes in the secondhand clothes industry. 

Everything snowballed from there, I realised very quickly that I had an entirely untapped market and I started to explore my niche. This was a really exciting time because I realised nobody else was doing what I was doing in Ireland. I actually couldn't believe it! 

Now 5 years into running my shop and guess what... there's still no one else doing it! I could list 20 vintage shops in Dublin alone off the top of my head and yet very few carry plus-sizes. So what's a girl to do?

I've always loved fashion and charity shopping, my mum instilled that thrifty nature into me from a very young age and it has carried me through life wonderfully! Upon realising nobody is stocking plus-size secondhand or vintage clothing in Ireland, I took it upon myself to do just that! 

I always say I have the best job in the world as a plus-size woman who loves fashion because I get to test all the products and keep what fits! I do have to be strict with myself though as I can end up hanging onto lots of pieces for way too long! 

Growing up, I always loved photography and got a DSLR camera for my 15th birthday. So when I started posting to Depop and they only allowed 4 photos and they all had to be square I knew I wanted to show off the pieces in a better way. Then came the Instagram. My Depop account was gaining followers at a rapid speed and I knew there was a lot of promotion I could be doing on other socials. So I created an Instagram account and started posting behind-the-scenes content and charity shop hauls. This allowed me to get creative with my work and discover how much I loved content creation. This is also how I upgraded my styling skills, putting together and documenting hundreds of outfits every year means you learn a thing or two about plus-size styling!

Five years in and I have finally set up my official website. So please be my guest and peruse my newest collection. I’ve worked hard to find some of the best pieces to date, I hope you love them as much as I do!