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Fashion forward: Thicket store offers offers plus-size apparel for stepping out in style

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Fashion forward: Thicket store offers offers plus-size apparel for stepping out in style

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Tucked away in a former mill building at 3 Brussels St. in Worcester, above the Acoustic Java coffee roastery and next to a barbershop, is the Thicket, a secondhand clothing store that serves as a brightly-colored haven for plus-size fashion.

Behind the front desk sits Leigh Soucy, who can usually be found sorting through vintage sweaters or encouraging customers to try on outfits that edge out of their comfort zone.

“Bigger-bodied people feel like we need to be small, as invisible as possible, and I’m trying really hard to nudge people and challenge people to wear whatever they want,” Soucy said.

From need comes inspiration

Soucy has been combing through thrift-store racks to create interesting outfits since she was a teenager, and in 2019, she began organizing clothing swaps, where participants would trade plus-size clothing items that no longer fit their styles.

“My friends brought so many brand-new things to one clothing swap that I thought, ‘Why do these things need to go to a Savers rack when there are plenty of folks who would love to get new Torrid and all these other expensive brands at a much lower price?’” Soucy said.

That moment was the spark that drove Soucy to found the Thicket, and on July 21, Soucy will bring her wares across town to host her most ambitious clothing swap yet.

The “Thicknic,” a combination market and bring-your-own-basket picnic, will take place outside the Burncoat Center for Arts & Wellness in Worcester.

To join in the swap, participants can bring plus-size clothing they would like to exchange, pay an admission fee on a sliding scale between $5 and $15, and bring home as many pieces as they want.

Not feeling seen

Local vendors will set up for a craft fair, and Worcester singer-songwriter Morgan Alyse will provide live music. On the grass, attendees are welcome to spread out a picnic blanket and eat, and Mrs. Moriconi’s Ice Cream will be selling sweet treats.

Soucy founded the Thicket in 2022 as a pop-up, traveling between markets to provide stylish secondhand clothing options for larger people, and opened the brick-and-mortar location in November.

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Since then, Soucy said, she has welcomed customers who drive all the way from New Hampshire and Connecticut, and a common refrain among them is “I’ve never been able to go in a store and feel like everything could work for me.”

“A lot of fat folks don’t feel seen, even in a Savers. They’re overwhelmed by how much there is to look through or they feel like there are no options,” Soucy said. “Going to a vintage market often feels like going to the mall when you’re a teenager — ‘Cool, I’ll look at sunglasses.’”

Wanting customers to feel respected

After only two years in business and seven months in a physical location, Soucy has a base of customers throughout New England who regularly contact her using the Thicket’s Instagram account to ask what she has in stock.

“People will message me like, ‘Hi, I’m driving out from Quincy, my size is 5X, do you have any dresses in a size 5X?’ and I can send them pictures of what I have,” Soucy said. “I just want so badly for fat people to feel tended to in a real way, in a way that I didn’t feel a whole lot when I was a kid.”

According to Soucy, the Thicket’s inventory comes from three main sources: thrift shops such as Savers, Goodwill and Worcester’s many church stores, donations from regular customers, and the pile of clothing that’s left after each of the shop’s clothing swaps.

Some clothing swap leftovers find a new home on the racks at the Thicket, while others go to Worcester organizations in need of clothing donations, as Soucy intends to keep every piece within the local community rather than throw anything out.

“All those leftovers, I go through, keep some for the shop, and the rest, I dole out to different organizations in the city. I’m trying to create a circular economy as best as possible,” Soucy said.

Inexpensive “fast fashion” retailers such as the massive online store Shein have received criticism in recent years for selling lower-quality clothing and using up excessive environmental resources, and Soucy said clothing donation boxes often send donated pieces overseas, where they can easily wind up in landfills that damage local ecosystems.

“So many options for fat folks are like Shein, which is not high-quality, and if I can save stuff that’s better-quality from a landfill and keep the life of it going, that’s a huge plus,” Soucy said. “It’s really lovely to stop this stuff from going into a donation box and being processed by that system. Fast fashion is awful, so I believe in secondhand big-time.”

‘Bright, quirky and vintage’

The Thicknic’s offerings tend bright, quirky and vintage, and Soucy said when she goes out searching for new stock, she intentionally looks for older clothing. After years of scouring thrift shops for ‘80s pieces, she said, it only takes a quick look at a garment for her to estimate its age based on its fabric quality and color scheme.

“I was born in the ’80s and grew up in the ’90s, and I always used to tell my parents I was born too late, because I think the ’80s would have been my time to shine,” Soucy said. “’Pretty In Pink’ is my favorite movie, and I love Molly Ringwald because she was so on-trend for the time and is a perfect time capsule for the era. I ask myself, would Molly Ringwald wear it? Would DJ Tanner (from ‘Full House’) wear it?”

Right now, Soucy said, she sees an increasing demand for wardrobe staples in colors that go with everything.

“I think the recession and the timing that we’re in right now is coloring what people are looking for, so neutrals have a longevity that a kooky shirt won’t have,” Soucy said. “People have been looking for pieces that will last a long time and are classic enough but also useful to them in their work life and regular life.”

‘I don’t think anybody should feel that their body is inherently bad’

Soucy said in recent years, other pop-culture trends have increased the demand for a shop like the Thicknic.

The 2010s saw the rise of the body positivity movement, which looked critically at beauty standards, and encouraged women to accept physical features such as stretch marks, scars and hyperpigmentation, a common condition that causes skin patches to become darker than the surrounding skin.

As part of the movement, some brands began featuring unedited photos of models, and some celebrities began posting candid shots on social media instead of using poses and angles to appear flawless.

The movement pushed back against the expectation that women maintain an extremely low weight. Soucy was drawn to body-positive online communities because of their welcoming attitude toward larger people.

However, Soucy said, as celebrities have begun using the diabetes drug Ozempic as a shortcut to weight loss, some members of those online communities are hopping on the trend, even shaming former friends for their weight.

“There are influencers for being plus-size and wearing wild outfits, and some of those folks are about-facing, going on Ozempic,” Soucy said. “If (losing weight is) in your cards and that’s your journey, that’s your business, but I don’t think anybody should feel that their body is inherently bad.”

The Thicknic

When: 1 to 4 p.m. July 21

Where: The Burncoat Center for Arts & Wellness, 78 Burncoat St., Worcester. Parking will be available across the street at Wawecus Road School.

How much: Admission to the clothing swap is $5 to $15. More information at thicketworcester.com.

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