Shopping

New York & Company Is Designing Clothes Inspired by Its Most Loyal Shoppers

The first collection is for a customer in Atlanta.

By Tiffany Yannetta Feb 22, 2017, 10:45am EST

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Roblena Walker wearing a bodycon dress standing in a white room — The Siren One-Shoulder Dress ($79.95)

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Most mall brands offer loyalty programs for die-hard shoppers — things like special discounts, early access to sales, and points programs.

New York & Company sees all that, and raises you something much better: clothing collections that are inspired by real customers. The first, available today, was inspired by Dr. Roblena E. Walker, a research scientist and public health professor in Atlanta who’s been shopping New York & Company (“back when it was called Lerner!” she tells me over the phone) for over 20 years.

Roblena Walker wearing a floral New York & Company dress, standing on a bridge — The Enchant One-Shoulder Maxi Dress ($99.95)

“I feel like there’s a piece in the collection for every woman, no matter what your shape,” Walker told Racked. The nine-piece collection includes a phenomenal bodycon dress, two pencil skirts, a strapless jacquard dress, and a few other great pieces. (You can shop it online and in select Atlanta stores.)

When asked what she hopes this collection will do for shoppers, she says, “I know what these clothes do for me. Growing up in a single family home, our mother raised my sister and I, and a day didn’t go by that she didn’t tell us we were beautiful and smart and capable and intelligent. That has transpired through everything I do in life and in the clothes that I wear, and my sincere hope for this collection is that it will really empower women to love who they are.”