Plus Size Clothing Review: Vineyard Vines for Target

In February of 2019, Target announced that they would partner with lifestyle brand, Vineyard Vines, for a limited summer collaboration. This was super exciting to me! I have always loved the simple, preppy aesthetic of Vineyard Vines. Partnering with Target would make their clothes significantly more affordable. In addition to that, they would be offering clothes in Plus Sizes! While Vineyard Vines currently offers Big and Tall Men’s, they have nothing available for Plus Size Women. This collaboration would give big girls like me a chance to try the brand for ourselves.

The collaboration was set to launch on Saturday, May 18 and buzz was huge on social media. I was really excited when I perused the look book and found several adorable sundresses and cute, causal tops and bottoms that I wanted to try. I was especially excited about the version of the Shep shirt, a knit pullover, that is a Vineyard Vines staple. Target encouraged shoppers to add items to their wish list to make it easy to add them to your cart on launch day. So, I filled my list up, and waited…

In the wee small hours of the morning on May 18th, I logged into my Target app from my bed and joined the feeding frenzy with bleary eyes. At exactly 2:01 AM Central, I began adding the items from my wish list to my cart. Success!! Everything seemed to be going swimmingly… until it wasn’t. By the time I hit pay at 2:07, half of the items in my cart disappeared, saying they were out of stock. The beautiful Shep pullovers in BOTH colors, the gingham dress I so wanted, and the cute and cozy whale shorts disappeared from my little cart. While I silently cursed the people who would be selling them on eBay in the next hour, I hit pay for the rest of the cart, rolled over and went back to sleep. At least, I got about half of what I wanted.

I decided to try a brick and mortar Target to see if I had any luck finding the items I missed out on. I arrived around 9:00 AM and there was nothing left but a sad assortment of baby clothes and a whole lot of housewares. Sigh. Target collaborations strike again with very limited stock and hungry resellers who buy up a lot of it. So, I went home to watch my shipping notices for what I did manage to order.

Here’s the rundown on what I received and how it worked…

Look 1: Striped Crewneck Dress ($30) and Pink Whale Pouch ($10)

This navy and white dress is absolutely adorable and well-made. It is made of a pique polo fabric and is detailed with cute signature whale embroidery and a zipper in the back. It’s long enough to wear as a casual everyday dress and can be dressed up or down with footwear. The little whale pouch is sturdy and cute. It will serve as a quick clutch or a little bag to store incidentals in a large tote. I will definitely be keeping this look and will get a lot of use out of it.

Look 2: Hibiscus Whale Strappy V-Wrap Dress ($30) and Straw Beach Bag ($40)

I absolutely love the hibiscus whale pattern on this dress. The whales are happy and make me smile. This dress would be perfect for a luau or summer beach party. Ultimately, I decided not to keep the dress for a few reasons. First, the faux wrap would still be rather revealing in a decent breeze. The fabric is quite thin on this dress and it is not lined. Also, the straps are really thin and don’t do a lot in the way of support for a large chested girl. I wanted to love the dress, but it just left me feeling a bit exposed. I decided not to keep the tote either. It is very cute and quite spacious, but it is way too large to carry as a purse, which is what I bought it for.

Look 3: Rough Seas Tie-Waist Midi Dress ($35)

I love the vintage, flirty feel of the ruffles on this dress. It is a perfect length on me and comes with a cute striped belt with a whale embroidered on it. The fabric seems sturdy and the cut fit my body well. This dress definitely stayed in my keep pile.

Look 4: White Ruffle Midi Dress ($35)

This dress is made from a pretty seersucker fabric and has that crisp summer feel. It is the same cut and style of the blue and white ruffle dress. The fabric is a bit sheer on this one. Since I have no beach photo shoots or similar occasions coming up, I decided I didn’t need to keep this color.

Look 5: Blue/White Striped Midi Skirt ($30) (T-shirt from Torrid)

While I like the idea of this skirt, it was an odd length. It fits much more like a maxi and made me look rather shapeless. It also seemed like it would be a wrinkled mess all the time. This skirt definitely wasn’t for me.

Look 5: Striped Casual Pants

First of all, let’s start with the fact that these are straight up sweatpants. That will never ever work for summer in the Midwest when it is hot as heck! I have never liked the sweats look on my body either. If these were breezy, flowy cotton pants, they would be prefect, but I literally worked up a sweat trying them on. So these definitely hit the go back pile.

I was also able to snag a few things for my husband, who is on the plus size end of the spectrum too. Here’s what he got…

Men’s Look 1: Hibiscus Whale Swim Trunks ($25) Striped Half-Zip Pullover ($30) and Steel Grey Trucker Hat ($16)

He said that he loves how soft and comfortable the pullover is. It’s quite roomy, has a nicely lined collar, and the Vineyard Vines signature embroidery. The swim shorts have a cool pattern and fit well. The ends of the tie have metal stays that will keep it from fraying. The hat is soft on the inside with an inner sweat band and is breathable.

Let’s be perfectly honest, though… since the women’s pullovers were sold out in a second, I am totally stealing this!

Men’s Look 2: Red Short Sleeve Polo

This shirt fits nicely and is a fun summery color… but it’s just a standard pique polo. The one bonus is that it’s fairly inexpensive.

All in all, I think the collaboration was great, but Target has GOT to figure out how to release their designer collabs in a more organized and reasonable way. I was able to get some cute, summery things from Vineyard Vines at an affordable price and that is awesome. It was quite a hassle though. At least through this collab, Vineyard Vines found that plus size women will shell out the dollars, if they would just make the merchandise available. Good news… they have assured me, a plus collection is coming this fall!!!

Shop https://www.target.com/ to see what is still available in this limited collection or keep an eye on https://www.vineyardvines.com/ for the plus size collection coming soon.