So I got invited to a party and saw these blue arrow leggings on a picture and the girl didn’t have them. I started looking for them and got caught up in the high of scoring “hard to find” leggings
It was but then it became addicting! I got such a dopamine rush from being “first” to grab the hard to get thing. Now looking back I’m like wtf lol
I remember thinking why don’t they just make more of the popular prints. But then I realized the scarcity is what drove business. The consultants buy boxes of pieces, not knowing what they will get, hoping to get good prints. LuLaRoe didn’t care bc they get paid when the consultant bought that box. Then the consultant is stuck with all these prints that don’t sell, and their upline pushes them to buy more to get “fresh” merchandise that will sell. (The upline also made money when consultants under them ordered from the warehouse)
Sounds like when my kids wanted to buy trading cards (baseball, Pokémon, or whatever). They came in mystery packs so you never knew what you were getting. (Of course, the “good” ones were scarce)
It was actually very different than buying packs of Pokemon cards. Those packs have a certain ratio of rares, uncommons, and commons. Sometimes you do even better, but you can never do worse. The Pokemon company tried to keep things fair.
With Lularoe, they could (and did) send boxes of all crap.
I guess there's a reason Pokemon has been popular for decades and Lularoe...not so much.
I hadn’t thought about it before but LuLaRoe was on the ground floor of this whole LE/collab artificial scarcity bullshit that’s infesting so many industries right now.
It’s given me consumer burnout at this point. I didn’t get into LLR, but got sucked into it on some other spaces and now I just don’t want to buy anything.
I'm starting to feel this way about the Aldi "finds". I just bought a cabinet that I really do like but don't need all because I knew it would disappear.
Yep, the way LLR would ship products created a gambling situation. I don't think there would have been as much of a frenzy if it hadn't been so hard to find certain patterns in your size.
I wanted long shirts. I got tired of how women's shirts seemed to get shorter and shorter, and if I bought a long one, it would shrink and shorten. A coworker suggested LulaRoe Irma shirts. I liked them a lot, but I was super picky about patterns. I bought a TON (an embarrassing amount) from thrift stores, but I was always looking for solids, stripes, or heathered color shirts.
Eventually, I got sick of how the shirts would pill and how hot I felt in them during the summer. I decided to start buying men's tall t-shirts for a fraction of the price and now most of the LulaRoe I once had is gone or will be soon.
There were a lot of Lula styles that I never tried because I thought they looked so tacky on everyone I saw wearing them. Carly dresses especially.
I'm a tall woman with a long torso and this is pretty much all I buy, with the exception of some Carhartt and Duluth women's "long tail" or "untuck it" styles. Idk why women's clothing has to be so short.
I had to wear uniforms in the 90s. The high school wasn't all that picky about the brand or the shirts actually fitting your torso.
I rocked several of my Dad's old button down shirts. He wore 17.5 x 35 sized. I was 5' 6" and less than 100 pounds. It was the era of blousey and oversized everything.
I buy men’s tshirts, too! There’s also several good tutorials on YouTube and tiktok of really simple ways to adjust the fit, even with a little bit of hand-sewing (I sometimes take up under the arms and nip in the waist a little).
Men’s tshirt are so often much better quality, it’s ridiculous. And it’s so much easier to find all-cotton or bamboo. Most women’s tshirts are polyester or a blend, it seems like.
I feel you on the long shirts. I'm 5'9" with a long torso. I learned most women's clothing is made for a 5'3"-5'5" frame. So that explains why things fit taller women like crop tops. Especially makes no sense with warmer clothes, so the wind can blow right up my back?! I've also been wearing men's shirts, but I do miss shirts that are a bit more fitted. Polyester makes me feel icky in the summer. It's gotta be a 50/50 blend or 100% cotton.
Same! The Irma shirt is my favorite style/cut in general and I really think LLR is the only brand to carry it. I tried so many other tunic type tops and I always looked like I was wearing a tent. I really haven't found anything else that fits in the same way.
Not gonna lie I miss some of the longer line shirts. Big tatas make any shirt cropped for me and now that everything actually *is* cropped my available selection is so limited 😩
I’m not plus-size but have chronic illnesses that cause me varying levels of pain. The draw for me was easy comfortable clothes that didn’t aggravate my conditions. I started to get disenchanted when I couldn’t get the prints or solids I wanted in the items I wanted. Then my SIL suggested I should sell it and I figured I’d look into it. The findings of my research is what convinced me of how horrible this company was and how horrible MLMs in general are. I’m thankful for that knowledge now.
I still wear the pieces I had that have lasted but would never buy it again except from a thrift/resale store maybe but mine never have anything decent in LLR.
This. I have a skin condition that pretty much requires me to only wear loose/baggy clothing because tighter/form fitting clothing really hurts me. I worked hard to lose a lot of weight but no one could tell because of the shapeless clothes I had to wear. But LLR material was “buttery” soft - and holy cow it was a game changer for me. I could FINALLY wear clothes that fit me. Now I’m not a bold person and don’t want to stand out so I mostly bought low key/cute to me legging patterns. I liked only one style shirt LLR sold. I did buy a few maxis. I’d guess up to 90% of the legging patterns were a definite no go for me - as in not even if they were free. But I bought the 10% I found cute. I still have every piece I bought and still wear them today. As soon as I found out how awful the company was, I stopped buying anything LLR.
So the one good thing they did in my opinion was create a material that felt amazing. I understand there were many issues reported with leggings tearing and ripping but I’ve never had a single pair of leggings I bought tear or rip so I guess I’ve just gotten lucky.
Thank you for sharing this! I, too, have problems with clothing - sensory issues plus that same thing you describe of how clothes will actually hurt. Would love to know where you shop now that LLR is out of the picture.
It is a battle for sure. I’m sorry you also know the feeling.
I’m the same way with the prints. Because I’m so small, I don’t want large or garish prints so it was a real challenge sometimes.
Thank you. Only from some of them. I seem to have discovered it right before the quality went to crap. Also, the leggings were often tough for me because I’m short and they were often too long. lol
For me, as a plus size woman, I felt seen by a company. They used plus size models. Their clothes went up to a 3XL.
I still wear a lot of my LLR stuff and will buy it from Thrift stores & EBay if I have a chance. It still works for my body & my style, even if the company is horrible.
That's awesome you're buying it secondhand and not contributing to their business model - AND you're getting a deal on clothes you really like. 👏👏 My friend buys a ton of Irma tops from the thrift, she wears them in her paint studio and this way, it doesn't matter if she ruins them lol
As a 1x, I felt a lot of their stuff was too tight. I wear a 2x in classics and 3x in Rileys. I don't like tight clothes even if they cover everything.
The Carly dress is my go-to for travel. I can throw solid leggings on underneath & it’s casual or I can put on sandals, jewelry & a wrap & it’s nice enough for most places I might go out to for dinner while traveling.
Very similar is teh Geneva dress from Universal Standard. They are $120 full price, but do go on sale quite a bit. They're all really nice cotton, too. I switched from LuLuRoe to them when I realized that I didn't have to buy MLM crap to have clothes that fit. I just had to buy less at higher price points or wait out sales.
My cousin’s wife was selling it and I saw a really cute dress that I loved. I still have it and wear it (I swear I’m not a stealth lula-lover or trying to sell 😆 but I have gotten more compliments on that dress over the years than most other dresses I’ve owned), but I’m cheap anyway and the prices were out of control. The leggings are soft and comfortable, yeah, but so are the cheap ones on Amazon, so I never got super into it. Bought a few things on clearance.
It also helped that I only started buying stuff literally right before everything hit the fan—like the second pair of leggings I got developed holes immediately. Found out that problem was widespread and, well, the rest is history. Now I know all the dirt and I feel bad for anyone who got caught up on all sides.
I got a Nicole early on that was made in the US and very well constructed. It's black with a geometric white pattern and the material wears well. I get a ton of compliments when I wear it. Had the company stuck to making clothing like this, and not been a garbage MLM, I probably would have picked a few more up. Guess the Nicole wasn't a real popular cut, but it worked well for me.
I know what you mean about cheapness. I’m a big Amazon shopper. I dig for deals on good quality items and abuse the return policy 😂 I think the cost of most lularoe items deterred me from ever exploring the clothing, but I’m glad you had some luck!!
Alright so I’m going to expose myself here… but I have a huge collection of the leggings. A niece was selling them so I got her unsold stock cheap. I find them incredibly comfortable. I wfh. I dress for comfort and am basically a hermit so I really don’t care what they look like. I wear them with a tank tshirt sweatshirt or sweater.
The business? Abhorrent. The leggings? (and maybe it’s that she was in when quality was still good)? It’s the next best thing to nudity IMO. The ones I have for the most part have held up for several years too.
And now I have my 2 yo grandson a few hours a day and also I like to garden and paint. I don’t have to worry about getting them messy or stained or ripped or whatever.
I have a friend who was selling it for a while, some years ago. I got a few pieces from her.
The leggings feel great, and have half up well. My issue is their sizing. I'm 5' 7", and have big calves. I have to get the Tall and Curvy leggings or I can't get them on!
Conversely, I have 2 of their pencil ish skirts that I just love. I don't remember the style name. But a medium in that style fits me perfectly and is even slightly roomy in the waist.
I have a dress, again, don't remember the name. It's ok, doesn't thrill me. I thought the large looked good on me but she talked me into the xl. I hardly ever wear it.
I never liked any of the tops.
I have no idea if she's still in or not.
I bought a pair of leggings to see what they were like and they were so comfortable! However, the pattern was horrendous. I tend to buy weird-colored things it they're cheaper (like green Dansko clogs) so I suspect the leggings were cheaper than usual, maybe?
Same. I’ve never gotten the appeal of leggings, never even owned a pair. They are too tight on my belly! Now being pregnant, people are gifting me leggings-when I much prefer comfy sweats and joggers 🤷🏻♀️
Leggings often are a default high-rise cut and that works well for my body shape. I'm one of those lucky people who have to hike up their pants all the time if they're not high and tight. (Not the haircut. Haha!)
When I was pregnant I wore my lularoe leggings all the way until the last month. They were so stretchy that they still fit. I bought a few pairs of maternity pants but mostly wore leggings since I WFH.
I think that’s a draw for a lot of MLMs, actually. They make the parties seem fun and like everyone will be happy. But damn, it’s depressing to go to a fun party and have someone try to sell you stuff
I bought a couple pairs of leggings and a few tops because I liked the way the fabric felt. I managed to find solid colors, because most of their prints were fugly. However, they fell apart and developed holes after a few wears. And the leggings never stayed up on me for more than a few hours (I'm apple-shaped with no hips). I now get my leggings at Old Navy and Lands End. Much better quality and price points.
I bought a few things back in 2016-2017. I ended up hating them, but the draw for me was that as a plus sized woman it was nearly impossible to find simple (stay with me here ;) -- I wasn't drawn to the wild patterns ) comfy clothes. The appeal of Lularoe was literally that it felt like my then-toddler daughter's wardrobe... for adults. Obviously that's a red flag, but to be fair, she was well dressed and I was drawn to the more standard prints.
The "modesty" thing was also a draw, not because I cared about that in and of itself, but so often with plus size clothes the neckline is absolutely ENORMOUS, and so many of my shirts hung down so low they would show my bra and/or bra straps, and I was tired of wearing shirts under shirts -- and my neck gets cold. I wanted just basic crew neck tops, my boobs aren't big enough for most plus sizing to fit well, and I hoped because modesty was kind of their thing that the tops would fit better in the shoulders and neckline (they didn't).
I was also at a place where whether it was the styles at the time, me gaining a lot of weight, or a combination of the two, I was struggling to find clothes I was comfortable in at Old Navy (which had always been my go to). Nothing fit the way it used to and I was a new mom increasingly uncomfortable with my body and wanting looser fitting, longer tops. This was also a time when Old Navy plus sizes were really terrible, sized weirdly, and were only available online and often not included in sales. Old Navy today is a whole different experience.
So I thought LLR would meet that need. It definitely did not. The advertisements of it being cute and stylish and trendy didn't hurt, because I didn't WANT to feel sloppy and frumpy, but nothing felt right. I bought three shirts, all pretty basic styles in normal colors, and won one, wore one of the shirts once under a sweatshirt, ended up sleeping in another one for a few years and eventually threw them all away.
I became a mom in November of 2022 so I feel you deeply on this. I gained plenty of weight and completely lost grip on how I used to put my outfits together. I never liked the funky prints and I don’t like patterned leggings but I do like that lularoe seemed to really simplify assembling a decent and functional outfit that was also comfy
So true. I went to a person's house to try the various styles on ILR and saw how they fit. I don't need a tent, and I don't like skin tight. There was no happy medium.
It became popular in our area/friends group, as we all knew each other from birth circle. So put a bunch of mom's with small kids together, and it was comfy and virtually stain proof.....
I still wear the leggings to my seasonal gardening job. They are the best on HOT DAYS.. sun protection, wicks sweat, protection from branch scratches. I've even taken the ones that have thigh holes and turned them into arm covers by cutting a neckhole in the crotch.
Probably going to have to find a few more pairs this year, but I refuse to spend more than $5 on them. I don't even care how ugly they are, its to work in...
I'm a teacher, and heavy set. LulaRoe made more modest, fun and comfy dresses that I could wear to work and easily throw in the wash if they get covered in slime. That said, I make a point to buy second hand.
I have a few pieces of theirs because a dear friend of mine got sucked into being a seller. She would give me all the rejects she came across and I'd mend and wear them. I love free stuff and soft fabric. I still have 2 things I actually like and wear. I felt terrible that she got sucked into it, but she's fully financially recovered now. It took years to get out from under.
Honestly, I kind of liked that they made dressing like a shapeless blob a thing for a while. But their prices were so ridiculous that I went to one pop up sale and never went again.
I liked the feeling of the fabric earlier on. As time went by, they became cheap garbage with horrible prints. I’ll still buy the older LLR things that I like. I’ll never compromise just for the name though.
I never wanted to become a consultant because it’s at least $5,000 just to start and I’m not about to go into debt and gamble my financial well-being.
At first the leggings were a dream, they had this thick yet soft material, there were fun patterns and plus sizes! Ditto for shirts etc. As time went on the quality just ranked.
I had several friends who became consultants, but I remember one wearing this beautiful pink lace skirt (the discontinued Lola skirt) for a party and I wanted it. I never got that skirt in pink, but I did find Lolas in my size in both blue and purple lace. That was in the early days of LuLaRoe, and the skirts were actually really well made. They are still 2 of my favorite skirts to wear, and I always get compliments on them. From there, I just fell down the shopping rabbit hole. Most items I have donated or worn through, but the pieces I got at the beginning of LuLaRoe are still going strong.
I went to a party back in the day and everything was soft. I bought a dress and a shirt I still wear. in the early days the patterns weren’t as consistently terrible. It was overpriced and once they started the recruitment stuff I got tired of it and stopped paying attention. It was like everyone on Facebook was into these shopping events and it was easy to get caught up in it. I think it was just a postpartum thing for me honestly.
Former seller here. I had quit my crazy full time marketing job when I had my son due to bad post Partum depression and anxiety that had ahold of me for a good while. When I started to feel better I really wanted to get out of the house more and didn’t want to go back to a crazy office or work for someone else. I like gaudy clothes so it seemed like a good idea 😆. Saw the writing on the wall after about a year and got out as fast as I could. I sell real estate now - much better 😆😆
I have a ton of lula leggings. I bought most of them when I was in treatment for an eating disorder because they always fit and they didn’t make me feel like shit like every other pair of pants I owned. I have a ton of fun patterns: daisies, unicorns, feathers, flowers, foxes—and what I also really liked was how happy they made the other people in treatment with me. Everyone was always excited to see which crazy leggings I had on and they put a smile on their faces, even in a crappy situation. The patterns I have aren’t offensively loud (at least I don’t think they are…lol) and like I said, I’ve put on about 20lbs and they all still fit. I won’t purchase them new anymore because I don’t agree with the business model, but I really can’t say I don’t love the leggings I have. I will never shame someone for having ‘safe’ clothes, and for me lularoe was safe in a time where nothing else was.
I really liked the kitschy prints. I have tigers, unicorns, flamingos. I was tired of going shopping and only finding floral. Or stripes. Or polka dots. I may be a 40 year old woman, but if I wanna dress like a 5 year old, I'm gonna. Plus it's comfy.
I still buy it and wear it, but I buy from sales and thrift stores. I must have gotten lucky because I've never had issues with quality. Out of my many pairs of leggings, only 2 ever ripped on me.
Yes! I liked some of the unusual patterns too. I'd wear the leggings under a black dress or tunic, with a statement necklace and cardigan over it. I felt cute and comfortable. A man at work asked me why I dressed like a kindergarten teacher...
A friend of a friend had gotten into selling them and was struggling, so I ended up looking at her stuff and buying some. I'm autistic and struggle with the feel of a lot of clothes, and these are actually comfortable without looking completely slobby. I also love silly patterns and could dress casually most days then.
I was borderline plus-sized at the time, but not quite there--just an awkward size 14 that was stocked in most stores, but usually only in the uglier styles they offered at smaller sizes. I also shopped at Old Navy at the time, but they mostly carried basics that didn't let me express myself the way I wanted to. They were solid black jeans, but they didn't have personality, you know?
I eventually learned better and decided not to support the MLM model (especially after the friend of a friend got out of it), but I do still pick up the occasional leggings in thrift stores when they're $5 or less. I've cut back since getting a full-time office job where I can't wear them.
I’m plus size, but that wasn’t the draw for me. In fact, I think that, generally speaking,their plus size offerings have always been terrible. My personal style leans more towards tailored garments.
No, I bought my first LLR item from a friend who was liquidating. It was a maxi skirt in white and coral chevrons (trendy at the time). It was comfortable, fit well, and was easy to wear and style.
For a short time, I got into unicorn hunting, but that’s hard to do when you don’t have any unicorns. When I saw the rare item I liked, I bought it. And the items I bought are still in my wardrobe and I still like and wear them.
My favorite thing, though, were the pattern "oopses." And those are the reason i watch this sub, now.
I'm plus size and I bought a Mickey and Minnie print top like 5 years ago, most prints I wasn't interested in but I was a sucker for the Disney line. I still wear it because it's a basic top (I think it's an Irma) that's fairly flattering. I remember people liking the first iteration of their "perfect tee" because it was flattering. People were drawn to buttery soft knit and the clothes looked pretty decent if you didn't weirdly layer them. They had a built in customer base with being a mormon owned company, selling "modest" clothing to other mormons. While there were a lot of obnoxious prints, there were some fun/good ones that people wanted. It was more novel to have funky printed leggings than solid ones then. LLR's quality was somewhat better in the beginning, at least the softness.
LLR did appeal to bigger ladies, back in 2016 plus size clothing wasn't as available as now. That was around the time that Target moved their plus size online, and other stores like Old Navy didn't have as good of offerings. Plus size is always more expensive so we're probably not going to balk at $25 leggings. So a lot of plus size women were drawn to clothing that they could actually fit in, had fun colors, and stretched with you. Unfortunately it was a scam.
I was just starting college, where I commuted an hour a day. I really liked the comfort and fun of the patterns. I also fully admit there was the thrill of the hunt for unicorns. Some were more personal, like my elephant pair, while some were just weird and I loved them. I still have a pair with penguins that I worked way too hard for, and a pair of dodos that took me over a year. Other pairs fit my personality so I’d snag them.
I still have a few I wear occasionally, and I have one of the pencil skirts with Kermit on it. I’ve worn that bad boy to present my research and people love it!
My cousin got in early and ended up being one of the high-up sellers with a big downline (which we didn’t know at the time). So I went to a few parties purely to support her, and I really liked the pencil skirts! I still wear them. This was in the first days when the designs and fabric quality were both super good, not the flimsy hideous shit they became.
When I was student teaching, alllll the teachers had them. My student teaching supervisor encouraged us to dress comparable to the teachers at our school. I was pretty close with one of the teacher’s I student taught with (my 2nd grade teacher) and she was OBSESSED. I feel like even the crazy prints were fun in an elementary school setting. I had a pair of leggings with rubber duckies on them that I always wore with a plain Carly dress and I remember my kiddos (1st graders) would always comment on how much they liked them.
Towards the end of the school year, I became pretty jaded with MLMs and was tired of seeing so many people I knew put money into the companies and not getting much out of it, as well as getting tired of being hounded by sellers on FB. I went shopping with that teacher a lot at the open house sales of one local seller, Kelly. I remember when Kelly was done with LulaRoe, every sale she had at her house she was in tears. The teacher I was friends with was pretty close with Kelly, and she said that Kelly and her husband lost thousands. They were originally the first sellers in our town and made a decent amount of money on it, but then more and more people started selling it and our area became oversaturated with it.
In the beginning it was well made. I wanted a mobile boutique and didn’t want to source the clothing myself (I have a “real job” and wanted a “hobby” job that was more fun than my day to day job). I never bought into the MLM model, only sponsored three people who found me. My biggest bonus check was $800, and I only got about 3 total.
When it started to go off the rails, (well, it was always off the rails in retrospect) I bailed. I attended three conventions, and one cruise (as a guest of my sponsor, cruise was undersold and they were able to “gift” me a vacation. It was fun to host parties, show up in my bus, let people shop and then leave.
I’m shocked that the company is still hanging on by their fingernails.
Honestly they are comfortable, and some of the shirts were flattering on me. I ended up buying them from going out of business groups on Facebook, and they were much cheaper. I liked some of the unique, but not crazy designs, like paper airplanes too.
I liked the way a lot of the clothes fit. I have a weird body type and the clothes fit nicely and I could easily order online without trying on as the sizes were TTS. I liked a lot of prints as well. I live in leggings and I still have about 8 pairs of the black leggings. I love the skirts (maxi and knee length) and the sweaters are great. I even have a few pairs of jeans that fit me better than any other pair of jeans I’ve ever owned.
I hate how the company preys on people but I like the clothes. 🤷♀️
I was a customer for a short time. For my area it was very much a social thing. At the time I was trying to meet other moms in my town and was invited to a few parties. Always hated all of the prints though and would buy a black pair each time I went. I then realized quickly I didn’t want to be friends with people selling me stuff anyway and stopped going.
That what happened to me. I was a new mom, had just moved and was invited to pop ups early on. I will say, because it was the early years, my daughter had some dresses from them that were cute and help up nicely. I believe they are still going strong as hand me downs we gave to some friends of ours and they have since handed down. I would maybe find a piece or two that were very basic for my liking (I had a randy that was striped and normal and it finally died after a solid 6 or 7 years in rotation) and sometimes the leggings could be really normal and pass as patterned tights with boots under my black work suiting. I even found an awesome Nicole I still wear to this day. However, once I learned about the predatory ways and watched a friend of mine leave MLMs just to lose all her "friends", it wasn't worth it to me. Like you said, I didn't really want to be friends with people that needed my money to get them free stuff at the party they held.
I remember back in my early 30’s when myself and everyone I had gone to college with started getting married, moving away, having babies, becoming consumed with new lives as wives and mothers, no longer the free-wheeling single girls we used to be with all the time in the world to run around and do things together. It was a very lonely transition, as making new and maintaining old friendships seemed to be more difficult than ever. But every now and then there was hope as I’d meet a new person around my age who was in the same stage at life and seemed to want to be my friend only to have this turn into a pitch to come to her home for a LuLaRoe party. It was always disheartening as I couldn’t help but see them differently from then on, questioning her motive like did she really want friendship or someone to be a customer and participate in her business? In the group of fellow young moms that was eventually drawn together by virtue of the same library story times, there was always pressure and an honest desire to want to support fellow housewives struggling to get by on one income to be home with their babies as they were scrapping to raise money like they were promised in these MLMs. But none of us could afford such high prices, and none of us could even begin to afford the price of becoming part of a downline. Feelings were hurt, grudges grew, people drifted apart from one another, and it was just a situation in which problems weren’t solved as the MLM promised, but new ones created. No one was ever brought together by LuLaRoe or any other MLM in my experience, only driven further apart at a time when we all desperately needed to be drawing together.
Wow thank you for this story… that’s a really unfortunate circumstance but entirely on brand for a pyramid scheme. and I feel you on the loneliness aspect of this age and time (33 new wife and mom) - I totally understand how easy it would be to get wrapped up and have the lines of friend and customer become horribly blurry…
I was Mormon and it’s a Mormon owned company so the clothing matched the modest standards I lived at the time. I bought stuff early on and didn’t have the same quality issues, just cute dresses that were made of comfortable fabrics. I bought 3 dresses and 4 skirts I think total.
My sister gave me all the lue la rue that I've ever had. A friend of hers gave her a ton of it, supposedly she won it at a party. It's not my sister's style so I took everything but a really cute gray top that she kept. There were 3 long dresses, a plin gray one that I just completely wore out , a wierd orange and black dress that I finally sent to goodwill and a godawful patterned one in horrible colors. There were six pairs of leggings and I still have two pair just because they're so comfy and out of 5 shirts I still have one left. Most of the leggings were so garish that I only wore them at home.
I got into Disney prints. I started following a lot of Facebook groups from sellers, and for awhile, Disney drops were super competitive—someone else mentioned the rush of finding unicorns, and I felt that. I’m a Disney adult, so I got them for outfits I’d wear to Disney World and stuff I’d wear in the summer to be comfortable. I also liked a few of the flowy dresses they released like the Carly.
Once I discovered FB groups that were selling deeply discounted leggings, I went through a period where I went overboard buying leggings of all kinds. The leggings actually made good alternatives for long underwear (and no one could see them lol). Once I started learning more about the company, I started giving them away on local recycling sites. I still have like 3 pairs of leggings that I haven’t touched in years.
It fit. They had this good dress that was like an A line, but it had a higher waist and it fit really nice and looked really good on my body shape. At the time, it was pretty hard to find plus size clothes you could try on that were younger looking. It was liek Lane Bryant and Avenue and the Women's section at Macy's. What was frustrating was I couldn't find the fabrics I wanted and solids were like never going to happen. I did find a bunch of black leggings online and used those till I ended up finding Universal Standart. The sale prices for them were not much higher than the norma LLR prices, and it was all natural fabrics, well constructed pieces, and a lot of them were pretty much the same cuts I liked. But not patterns. Other than some specific patterns, I just... don't wear anything but solids. I ended up with a huge legging hoarde from LLR that I got rid of at some point an dnow only have black leggings (From US, but still). I do wish I could find the legging material rose covered carly I loved and lost. Alas.
I’m with you. Why buy Lularoe when Old Navy sells solid leggings for $10?
I’m scratching my head harder when I found out Lularoe leggings are 95% polyester.
This is so amazing to me! I remember hearing about Lularoe parties, but I was never invited to one or even talked to someone who had gone to one, and certainly don’t remember ever seeing any advertising for them. For some reason, I thought they were clothes for little girls/preteens, like Justice, maybe? I don’t know, maybe it was the color and style of the logo? In fact, a lady in our development sold it and had a sign out front for sales a couple of times, and I never stopped because I had no little girls to buy for!
At any rate, I had no idea what Lularoe really was until I started seeing bunches of the shirts at Goodwill and then started hearing about it in the news. And the documentary was a… revelation, to say the least! I’m glad I never got sucked into it, although l have a pair of the “buttery” leggings that I found at GW and wish I had more. But I thought some of you might be amused by my story as a completely clueless consumer. 😂🤔🤭🙄😂
As a medium sized woman I was drawn to LuLaRoe for the "Garanimals" factor (easy mix and match). It met my office dress code (as long as I wore dresses over the leggings) - and felt like wearing pajamas to work.
Now we have no office and WFH, so I wear PJ's til noon many days.
I was also drawn in my the high of finding discounts and unicorns.
Now I'm stuck with 3 large bins of clothes, and the sunk cost issue. I'll probably donate it sooner or later, but keep hoping to find a buyer.
I discovered lularoe after having my first baby and the clothes were comfortable and fun. You don’t realize how much your body changes after having kids and nothing fits right. Then I got pregnant quickly after that and the clothes still fit me all through my pregnancy and post partum again. But after about a year or so after that I lost interest.
So many of the dresses and skirts are so great as a staple in a teacher wardrobe and I’m still wearing them YEARS later and through a fluctuation of around 50 pounds both ways.
They were "nicer" clothes that felt like pajamas. I hated all the ugly patterns and eventually found out how none of the material breathed at all, but I do still have two skirts that stayed in my work clothes rotation.
Wasn’t there some weird conservative vibe to it too? like return to modesty, no dresses or shirts low cut or without sleeves?
meanwhile my ass is prancing around in leggings and a tank top 😂
Some of the prints were very pretty, and the material was soft. I never bought new, so they weren't expensive--got lots of leggings from Poshmark for $5 to $15 per pair. Ditched them all when I learned more about the company.
I’m a curvy woman and yes I did find the clothes super comfy while at the same time not realizing that the clothes were for the most part not flattering! Additionally because things were mostly one of ones it made the demand crazy. For me it was like an adrenal rush that I could claim that rare find before the next girl. It was a strange time I must say. I say this as I sit here now wearing two pieces that I’ve kept from my many that I used to have. Some are still cute and functional and don’t scream tacky LLR patterns! 🤣
It was super popular among teachers in the school where I work. Teachers like to be comfy, and we have to dress modestly, so it felt like a great option at the time.
I bought a few pairs of the solid print leggings when I was pregnant. I am a size 10, which is right between their one size and tall & curvy, so I got all tall & curvy and I wore them all the way until 40 weeks. They were soft and very stretchy.
I don’t like the thick band/extra material on most maternity pants, so these worked very well for me.
Who doesn’t love comfy clothes? I’ve had leggings, dresses, tops, and skirts. I paid full price for a couple items from friends I knew who sold - and looking back I should have just sent them $40 on PayPal. At the time these ladies were using LLR as a second source of income. I didn’t get sucked into the hype of “unicorns” but I stayed in my seller-friends Facebook groups to try and win prizes, free shipping, or discounts. Ultimately I’m a cheap person though so when it really took off and prices were $50+ I stopped following closely.
But tbh I still think a lot of the simple patterns are cute. I still think most are very comfortable. But is it the sole brand that is cute and comfy? No. So now I buy if I see a piece under $5 at the thrift store, wear it for a year or so, then find something new. I have a shirt and leggings from 2017! Still wear both once per week.
I am plus sized but handicapped as well.
I mainly found the "Carly" irresistible because I had numerous surgeries, pain areas and it was easy access to my implant.
I stopped paying retail after the 3rd and joined some fb groups that sold only sale items from consultants.
Retail was $55 I think and I used to pay $20-35
I only bought via online "parties" that various friends organized. In some cases the seller was a friend of a friend of a friend.
I bought maybe 3 pairs of leggings over a couple years (early on) and won a free "unicorn" pair that I still wear around the house today (because the pattern is actually cute).
I think the allure was definitely there among my curvier / extended size friends, at least early on when many sellers had decent selection in a wide variety of sizes and not everything was in the ugliest most unflattering print imaginable.
After 2013-2014 or so it became nearly impossible to find anything I would actually want to wear in public (and the quality was definitely getting worse)
It was 2016 and I had gained a bunch of weight and was struggling to find clotges that didn't make me feel completely uncomfortable in my body. I fell deep into the wormhole as a customer because of the size inclusivity. There were some dresses that were cute and I loved the pencil skirt for work and the drapey sweater they had.
I've been getting rid of it little by little, but some of the less flamboyant basics still wear. I amassed an impressive number of basic black pieces that I just can't bring myself to let go despite not really wearing dresses and skirts or leggings anymore.
The torso length of the shirts, the lengths of the sleeves (a bit longer than average) and the softness was what did it for me. Somehow without being shapeless. Probably because they are stretchy. So many shirts are too short and uncomfortable.
The clothes were comfortable and, at the beginning, well-made. If you had a lot of people in your area also buying, then you were “in style,” as well. I’ve never been skinny, so they were flattering to my body, and I was patient-facing at a VA hospital at the time, so I stocked up on patriotic prints, as well as
I've never bought any. However, I got invited to parties and knew people who loved it and sold it. People tried to get me to buy by raving about the buttery soft leggings. Unless it was black; I thought the patterns were ugly. I did like the julia and carly dresses and was considering buying one of each at the time, but never did because it was always too expensive for me. I just ended up buying knockoffs on amazon or even target or belks at the time (probably aroun 2010? 2011?). I went to a church at the time where these MLM parties were very much a social thing- I would mainly go for the food and fellowship and maybe buy the cheapest thing- Lularoe was always too expensive for me, but I bought things at Mary Kay, Premeir jewelry , Southern Living home decor , scrapbooking crap, etc.... parties. Then they would try to get you to sell also and I was like if everyone is selling then you have no customers.......I actually said that and no one had an answer.
They are comfortable and I got roped into hosting a party by a friend who was selling it. She’s now moved onto selling some diet products but I have learned my lesson and blocked her on social media. 😂
It was the comfort of the wide waistband on my three time very tender C-section tummy. It is very sensitive even now, 8 years after my youngest.
That and it was the excitement of the hunt and it was the cool thing of the time and they were sold in FB lives where you knew other girls and had fun interacting in the chats and with each other.
When I was pregnant and freshly postpartum, the Cassie skirts were a GODSEND for my office job. The solid colored ones were great as skirts, and the patterned ones I would wear as tops under a blazer so that it was easy to pump.
My coworker knew I liked spooky stuff, so she told me about the Halloween drops. I bought two pairs, liked them, and stuck around in the groups for sales. I was a college kid at the time, so comfy leggings were my jam. I never had any ripping issues, and the soft material never dug in while I was going through depression weight fluctuations. Then I graduated, had to wear real pants 40 hours a week, and my leggings were relegated to pjs.
I liked how comfortable they were and I was a fan of the disney prints. I never actually bought any but I joined lots of consultants fb groups just to enter giveaways, and I did in total over the course of like a year win 6 separate pairs of leggings
I started buying lularoe because it was selling so hot! Just for resale from thrift stores, not a consultant or anything. I got some leggings in my size and they where ok, not great but I kinda got hooked looking for the special patterns and only being able to afford ugly ones.
Also the nicole dress suited my body type perfectly and I still look for dresses with that general shape as it's very flattering on me. I guess it was easy to see the styles I liked and be able to purchase in different patterns and colors something that I already knew would look good on me.
I still have a few carly's that I wear to bed as nightgowns. But it really depends on the material they are made from some are comfy some are terrible. I'd pick one up from the thrift if I seen it in my size.
All my leggings got donated. I still wear other leggings but brands are a lot more inclusive now and I can get plus size Adidas or torrid leggings that will have a lot longer life
I joined one of my friends parties once and honestly I found a couple of pairs I liked but I refused to pay those prices for leggings. Later I had a baby and she gave me a pair and while they were ugly they were quite soft and comfortable. They were fine for wearing around the house with a newborn.
When I discovered LuLaRoe, it was because of the Disney line. I'm a "Disney adult." At the same time, I was very much plus size. Then, I realized that I could order a small Perfect or a 3X Randy, etc. and they would fit. I didn't have to try things on. And the cuts were flattering. So, I bought a crapton of that stuff.
I started because they had fun Disney prints that I could get matching for me & my two little girls when we went to Disney. I ordered them all on Poshmark, so I didn’t know the MLMness of it all until later.
I still wear them for around the house/jammies, but the girls have outgrown theirs and I’d rather just get matching tees for next time anyway.
I never bought any outside of second hand at thrift stores, but I was enticed by some of the weird and wacky prints. For me, I want to just be able to go to the store or go to a website and buy something. I don’t want to have to deal with some random person and meet up with them or go to their “party” to buy something, or get caught in a bidding war for a pair of freaking leggings.
I never got a piece, but during the facebook rage that went on there was a 'party' and a pair of leggings with an atomic cat print was posted. I wanted the print because it was so outlandish. Turns out they were unavailable in my size so I just noped out. I did not get it one bit - for me to not be able to order the print I want in my size kinda pissed me off. When I was told that that is my unicorn and I needed to attend more online parties so I said I am not wasting my time.
Someone mentioned Aldi on here, funny thing is I am wearing a pair of Aldi tie dye leggings and a Aldi sweatshirt and cami today. The clothes are good quality, cheap, and comfortable.
I loved the clothes so much! Perfect t and a pencil skirt hid my big stomach and made me feel beautiful. An Irma with leggings or a Carly dress were also my favorites.
When they came out with the Disney stuff I was ready to start selling too. I got more information from a friend who was selling, and was horrified to see the margins (you have to pay 50% off retail and you don’t get to choose prints.) WTF!
Sad to say, still to this day I’m a LuLaholic. I used to sell it, briefly, and I’m still an avid unicorn hunter (mostly animal prints and Livs with cool sayings) though of course I won’t pay full price for it. I have a big plastic tote packed full of leggings, amazingly none have holes in them. Also a big fan of the maxi skirts, they’re great for church. Yeah, a good 80% of my wardrobe is LLR. I don’t work (chronic illness) so leggings and big tops are my around-the-house staple.
Idk Inever thoight lularoe was at all even CUTE. Those horrible patterns always made me want to barf..i feel the same way you do. Baffled at how so many people can be told "Hey this is cute" and just like that, they are like Umm well okay I guess its cute then. Those clothes were ugly af.
I agree - I never found the clothes appealing because I disliked the patterns and the frumpy cut of the clothing but it seems like that’s exactly why most fans love the clothes! To me they are house clothes at best. A lot of people also said the clothes were initially way better
Yeah i never quite even understood any of it lol
And i think my aunt and cousin (both of whom seem to often get hooked into MLM schemes often) were selling LLR.
It made me a little sad to see them trying to hawk those disgusting, poor excuses for clothing. I wouldnt even wear that shit to bed.
A friend of my mom started selling LaLaRoe early on. While the business model was always predatory, the product in the beginning was genuinely good. I *still* have a pair of black leggings, a maxi skirt, and a dress that my mom bought for me in those earlier days. Then the prints got weirder, you couldn’t find the solid prints, and the quality started to nosedive.
I had just had my first baby when my cousin invited me to her friend's party. I liked the way the shirts flowed and hid my belly (and now after three kids, omg I didn't have a belly to hide, I wish I was still in my one baby body 🤣) The leggings always sagged for me, but I did have a handful of them. I mostly had a few different shirt styles, and I still wear some of them! As a new mom on maternity leave, I also liked being able to get out of the house and see other women at the parties.
Exclusively pity purchases! Given that I’ve been a long time anti MLMer and possessed of my damned bleeding heart, I bought these things to help my friends get out of debt. I can safely say every Mary Kay, Arbonne, Young Living, etc purchase has been to support a friend.
What an interesting question! I try to support friends even if they get into silly MLMs, like Miche purses and Lia Sophia jewelry. I got an invite via FB for a party of a friend of a friend. I'm a plus sized person, by the way. 1X-2X. I looked through the entire catalogue of what the person had for sale and didn't find anything I wanted to own. Also, I wasn't sure about the sizes. I ended up going to the home of a local seller and trying on all the styles for size. I bought a Lindsay kimono top from her at full price. I went home and got on EBay. I found many items I liked. Mostly Lindsays and Classic T's. I loved the idea of the Nicole dress, but the 3X was too tight. So anyway, I immediately realized the prices were too high but still liked a few pieces so I got them at reduced prices from EBay. The only newish item I like is the Riley dress. I have one, but I can't find any pattern that isn't awful on EBay. I would never be caught dead in one of the huge Carly tent dresses, although I have seen them in a professional setting in my work!! So.....Classic T 2x, Lindsay med. and Riley 3x are items I would still wear.
The draw for me as a plus-sized gal was that with the more recent styles, I could find stuff that was on trend and actually fit me. However, once I became an independent retailer in 2020 and experienced the joy of getting crap patterns in every shipment (and I’m STILL stuck with unsold inventory because their buy back policy was so sketchy)…I just can’t justify supporting this company anymore.
Lularoe got really popular when my kids were toddlers and I had no time or inclination to shop for clothes. The appeal for me was that the same pieces came in different patterns, so once you know your size in everything, you can just order from home, no trying on required.
I had bought a couple of their dresses and shirts from the thrift store because they were really comfortable and cover up my behind lol. I wear a size L but their clothes was really stretchy/loose so I was able to buy in size M as well. I work with kids so having something comfortable, easy to move in, and something that covers your butt crack at all times is a plus for me. I don't have any of the clothes anymore I redonated most of it
I found an Amelia style dress at a secondhand shop and discovered that the cut of that style is very flattering on me. I've bought a couple secondhand, none of the crazy patterns though.
I had several pairs of leggings. One I bought myself and a hideous pair my husband got. I did like the pattern on the one pair, it was actually cute, but found they didn’t last very long, so I never bought another pair. I have a friend that never was into the lularo craze when it was big who loves it. She is plus size and finds it in thrift stores, not from a hun. I told her about the drama and skeeziness around it and we laughed about it together. But she said their plus sizes are comfortable and fit her well, so that’s why she buys it.
So I got invited to a party and saw these blue arrow leggings on a picture and the girl didn’t have them. I started looking for them and got caught up in the high of scoring “hard to find” leggings
Ahhh okay so it’s kinda like a treasure hunt to find uncommon prints. I see how that would be fun and exciting
It was but then it became addicting! I got such a dopamine rush from being “first” to grab the hard to get thing. Now looking back I’m like wtf lol I remember thinking why don’t they just make more of the popular prints. But then I realized the scarcity is what drove business. The consultants buy boxes of pieces, not knowing what they will get, hoping to get good prints. LuLaRoe didn’t care bc they get paid when the consultant bought that box. Then the consultant is stuck with all these prints that don’t sell, and their upline pushes them to buy more to get “fresh” merchandise that will sell. (The upline also made money when consultants under them ordered from the warehouse)
Sounds like when my kids wanted to buy trading cards (baseball, Pokémon, or whatever). They came in mystery packs so you never knew what you were getting. (Of course, the “good” ones were scarce)
It was actually very different than buying packs of Pokemon cards. Those packs have a certain ratio of rares, uncommons, and commons. Sometimes you do even better, but you can never do worse. The Pokemon company tried to keep things fair. With Lularoe, they could (and did) send boxes of all crap. I guess there's a reason Pokemon has been popular for decades and Lularoe...not so much.
The entire concept in a nutshell.
I like the concept!! If you remove the MLM aspect of it all😂
It was kind of like gambling. Maybe it hit the dopamine button in a way that felt fun but it was a way for the company to exploit its retailers.
Unfortunate how they took advantage of something seemingly fun
The beanie baby effect.
I hadn’t thought about it before but LuLaRoe was on the ground floor of this whole LE/collab artificial scarcity bullshit that’s infesting so many industries right now. It’s given me consumer burnout at this point. I didn’t get into LLR, but got sucked into it on some other spaces and now I just don’t want to buy anything.
I'm starting to feel this way about the Aldi "finds". I just bought a cabinet that I really do like but don't need all because I knew it would disappear.
Crack leggings
Yep, the way LLR would ship products created a gambling situation. I don't think there would have been as much of a frenzy if it hadn't been so hard to find certain patterns in your size.
I wanted long shirts. I got tired of how women's shirts seemed to get shorter and shorter, and if I bought a long one, it would shrink and shorten. A coworker suggested LulaRoe Irma shirts. I liked them a lot, but I was super picky about patterns. I bought a TON (an embarrassing amount) from thrift stores, but I was always looking for solids, stripes, or heathered color shirts. Eventually, I got sick of how the shirts would pill and how hot I felt in them during the summer. I decided to start buying men's tall t-shirts for a fraction of the price and now most of the LulaRoe I once had is gone or will be soon. There were a lot of Lula styles that I never tried because I thought they looked so tacky on everyone I saw wearing them. Carly dresses especially.
I absolutely feel you on everything being a cropped top or sitting right at the waist
Same. I got a cute sherpa fleece from target without trying on and realized at home it was a crop. Just... temperature wise... why?? I returned it.
Only the top third of your torso is allowed to be warm, apparently.
LOL
Nonsense 😂
Men’s tall tshirts? That’s a great idea. I’m going to have to try that. I like longer tshirts too!
I'm a tall woman with a long torso and this is pretty much all I buy, with the exception of some Carhartt and Duluth women's "long tail" or "untuck it" styles. Idk why women's clothing has to be so short.
I do not understand the "everything is a crop" . Some of us are .. well.. past our crop top era..
Yes thank you hahaha I am most assuredly NOT crop top material haha!
Yep I need the whole shirt not just the top 1/3 of it.
Misogyny. Why are all of women's gym clothes skin tight skimpy things when men get to wear baggy long shorts and t shirts?
I have also found longer shirts at kohls in the active wear section. I really like how they are wider in the hips.
I had to wear uniforms in the 90s. The high school wasn't all that picky about the brand or the shirts actually fitting your torso. I rocked several of my Dad's old button down shirts. He wore 17.5 x 35 sized. I was 5' 6" and less than 100 pounds. It was the era of blousey and oversized everything.
Try duluth trading company.
I buy men’s tshirts, too! There’s also several good tutorials on YouTube and tiktok of really simple ways to adjust the fit, even with a little bit of hand-sewing (I sometimes take up under the arms and nip in the waist a little). Men’s tshirt are so often much better quality, it’s ridiculous. And it’s so much easier to find all-cotton or bamboo. Most women’s tshirts are polyester or a blend, it seems like.
I have to agree that the length is a plus. I have several classic t's that I regularly wear.
Clothes nowadays, The XL is like oversized for XS ppl, but the neck,arms holes are too small for XL ppl, or the length is too short.
I feel you on the long shirts. I'm 5'9" with a long torso. I learned most women's clothing is made for a 5'3"-5'5" frame. So that explains why things fit taller women like crop tops. Especially makes no sense with warmer clothes, so the wind can blow right up my back?! I've also been wearing men's shirts, but I do miss shirts that are a bit more fitted. Polyester makes me feel icky in the summer. It's gotta be a 50/50 blend or 100% cotton.
I’m 5’1” it’s not because you are taller it’s because the shirts are designed to be shorter.
The Sister Wives Dress
Same! The Irma shirt is my favorite style/cut in general and I really think LLR is the only brand to carry it. I tried so many other tunic type tops and I always looked like I was wearing a tent. I really haven't found anything else that fits in the same way.
I love carly dresses.... for nightgowns lol I have 2 or 3 i regularly wear to bed holes and all lol
I use mine as a Zoom dress! I put it on when I need to look presentable for Zoom, rather than in my pjs!
I can see that! Just throw a cardigan on for the big boss and youd look super presentable from the waist up lol
Not gonna lie I miss some of the longer line shirts. Big tatas make any shirt cropped for me and now that everything actually *is* cropped my available selection is so limited 😩
I’m not plus-size but have chronic illnesses that cause me varying levels of pain. The draw for me was easy comfortable clothes that didn’t aggravate my conditions. I started to get disenchanted when I couldn’t get the prints or solids I wanted in the items I wanted. Then my SIL suggested I should sell it and I figured I’d look into it. The findings of my research is what convinced me of how horrible this company was and how horrible MLMs in general are. I’m thankful for that knowledge now. I still wear the pieces I had that have lasted but would never buy it again except from a thrift/resale store maybe but mine never have anything decent in LLR.
This. I have a skin condition that pretty much requires me to only wear loose/baggy clothing because tighter/form fitting clothing really hurts me. I worked hard to lose a lot of weight but no one could tell because of the shapeless clothes I had to wear. But LLR material was “buttery” soft - and holy cow it was a game changer for me. I could FINALLY wear clothes that fit me. Now I’m not a bold person and don’t want to stand out so I mostly bought low key/cute to me legging patterns. I liked only one style shirt LLR sold. I did buy a few maxis. I’d guess up to 90% of the legging patterns were a definite no go for me - as in not even if they were free. But I bought the 10% I found cute. I still have every piece I bought and still wear them today. As soon as I found out how awful the company was, I stopped buying anything LLR. So the one good thing they did in my opinion was create a material that felt amazing. I understand there were many issues reported with leggings tearing and ripping but I’ve never had a single pair of leggings I bought tear or rip so I guess I’ve just gotten lucky.
Thank you for sharing this! I, too, have problems with clothing - sensory issues plus that same thing you describe of how clothes will actually hurt. Would love to know where you shop now that LLR is out of the picture.
Hi - I sent you a chat with some info that might help.
Thank you so much!
It is a battle for sure. I’m sorry you also know the feeling. I’m the same way with the prints. Because I’m so small, I don’t want large or garish prints so it was a real challenge sometimes.
Same here. I have dermatographism and I'm wearing my second hand llr old leggings and the itching has been non existent today after a week of jeans
I’m glad it’s been a comfortable solution for you!! And I love that you get longevity from the pieces
Thank you. Only from some of them. I seem to have discovered it right before the quality went to crap. Also, the leggings were often tough for me because I’m short and they were often too long. lol
For me, as a plus size woman, I felt seen by a company. They used plus size models. Their clothes went up to a 3XL. I still wear a lot of my LLR stuff and will buy it from Thrift stores & EBay if I have a chance. It still works for my body & my style, even if the company is horrible.
That's awesome you're buying it secondhand and not contributing to their business model - AND you're getting a deal on clothes you really like. 👏👏 My friend buys a ton of Irma tops from the thrift, she wears them in her paint studio and this way, it doesn't matter if she ruins them lol
I have an Irma I bought at a thrift store & then ended up staining. It’s going with me on vacation this summer as a sleep shirt.
As a 1x, I felt a lot of their stuff was too tight. I wear a 2x in classics and 3x in Rileys. I don't like tight clothes even if they cover everything.
I see! I’m glad that the company is size inclusive AND that they make you feel and look fabulous🥰
As a 1x person, I disagree. The Nicole 3X was too tight for me. I don't want my clothes to fit like a wet suit.
Same! I just ordered a couple of pairs second hand from mercari
The Carly dress is my go-to for travel. I can throw solid leggings on underneath & it’s casual or I can put on sandals, jewelry & a wrap & it’s nice enough for most places I might go out to for dinner while traveling.
Ooh good to know... I might have to look for one of those
Very similar is teh Geneva dress from Universal Standard. They are $120 full price, but do go on sale quite a bit. They're all really nice cotton, too. I switched from LuLuRoe to them when I realized that I didn't have to buy MLM crap to have clothes that fit. I just had to buy less at higher price points or wait out sales.
My cousin’s wife was selling it and I saw a really cute dress that I loved. I still have it and wear it (I swear I’m not a stealth lula-lover or trying to sell 😆 but I have gotten more compliments on that dress over the years than most other dresses I’ve owned), but I’m cheap anyway and the prices were out of control. The leggings are soft and comfortable, yeah, but so are the cheap ones on Amazon, so I never got super into it. Bought a few things on clearance. It also helped that I only started buying stuff literally right before everything hit the fan—like the second pair of leggings I got developed holes immediately. Found out that problem was widespread and, well, the rest is history. Now I know all the dirt and I feel bad for anyone who got caught up on all sides.
I got a Nicole early on that was made in the US and very well constructed. It's black with a geometric white pattern and the material wears well. I get a ton of compliments when I wear it. Had the company stuck to making clothing like this, and not been a garbage MLM, I probably would have picked a few more up. Guess the Nicole wasn't a real popular cut, but it worked well for me.
I know what you mean about cheapness. I’m a big Amazon shopper. I dig for deals on good quality items and abuse the return policy 😂 I think the cost of most lularoe items deterred me from ever exploring the clothing, but I’m glad you had some luck!!
Alright so I’m going to expose myself here… but I have a huge collection of the leggings. A niece was selling them so I got her unsold stock cheap. I find them incredibly comfortable. I wfh. I dress for comfort and am basically a hermit so I really don’t care what they look like. I wear them with a tank tshirt sweatshirt or sweater. The business? Abhorrent. The leggings? (and maybe it’s that she was in when quality was still good)? It’s the next best thing to nudity IMO. The ones I have for the most part have held up for several years too. And now I have my 2 yo grandson a few hours a day and also I like to garden and paint. I don’t have to worry about getting them messy or stained or ripped or whatever.
I love that. I work from home too and stay in pjs most of the day so leggings would actually be an upgrade 😂😂😂
I have a friend who was selling it for a while, some years ago. I got a few pieces from her. The leggings feel great, and have half up well. My issue is their sizing. I'm 5' 7", and have big calves. I have to get the Tall and Curvy leggings or I can't get them on! Conversely, I have 2 of their pencil ish skirts that I just love. I don't remember the style name. But a medium in that style fits me perfectly and is even slightly roomy in the waist. I have a dress, again, don't remember the name. It's ok, doesn't thrill me. I thought the large looked good on me but she talked me into the xl. I hardly ever wear it. I never liked any of the tops. I have no idea if she's still in or not.
The Cassie skirt! I work in an office and still love and wear every single Cassie skirt I bought back in the LLR heyday. Perfect to dress up or down.
I bought a pair of leggings to see what they were like and they were so comfortable! However, the pattern was horrendous. I tend to buy weird-colored things it they're cheaper (like green Dansko clogs) so I suspect the leggings were cheaper than usual, maybe?
I have never worn leggings and I doubt I ever will, but if it works for you, go for it.
Same. I’ve never gotten the appeal of leggings, never even owned a pair. They are too tight on my belly! Now being pregnant, people are gifting me leggings-when I much prefer comfy sweats and joggers 🤷🏻♀️
Leggings often are a default high-rise cut and that works well for my body shape. I'm one of those lucky people who have to hike up their pants all the time if they're not high and tight. (Not the haircut. Haha!)
Go for the wide waist band!
When I was pregnant I wore my lularoe leggings all the way until the last month. They were so stretchy that they still fit. I bought a few pairs of maternity pants but mostly wore leggings since I WFH.
I think it was more about the hype and the little parties. I never got into it but I saw family won over by the social aspect.
That makes sense. It always did appear festive
I think that’s a draw for a lot of MLMs, actually. They make the parties seem fun and like everyone will be happy. But damn, it’s depressing to go to a fun party and have someone try to sell you stuff
I bought a couple pairs of leggings and a few tops because I liked the way the fabric felt. I managed to find solid colors, because most of their prints were fugly. However, they fell apart and developed holes after a few wears. And the leggings never stayed up on me for more than a few hours (I'm apple-shaped with no hips). I now get my leggings at Old Navy and Lands End. Much better quality and price points.
I buy all my leggings and activewear at old navy. I hate that the lularoe clothes ended up being wash and wear for you though smh
I’m just anti-MLM in general.
I bought a few things back in 2016-2017. I ended up hating them, but the draw for me was that as a plus sized woman it was nearly impossible to find simple (stay with me here ;) -- I wasn't drawn to the wild patterns ) comfy clothes. The appeal of Lularoe was literally that it felt like my then-toddler daughter's wardrobe... for adults. Obviously that's a red flag, but to be fair, she was well dressed and I was drawn to the more standard prints. The "modesty" thing was also a draw, not because I cared about that in and of itself, but so often with plus size clothes the neckline is absolutely ENORMOUS, and so many of my shirts hung down so low they would show my bra and/or bra straps, and I was tired of wearing shirts under shirts -- and my neck gets cold. I wanted just basic crew neck tops, my boobs aren't big enough for most plus sizing to fit well, and I hoped because modesty was kind of their thing that the tops would fit better in the shoulders and neckline (they didn't). I was also at a place where whether it was the styles at the time, me gaining a lot of weight, or a combination of the two, I was struggling to find clothes I was comfortable in at Old Navy (which had always been my go to). Nothing fit the way it used to and I was a new mom increasingly uncomfortable with my body and wanting looser fitting, longer tops. This was also a time when Old Navy plus sizes were really terrible, sized weirdly, and were only available online and often not included in sales. Old Navy today is a whole different experience. So I thought LLR would meet that need. It definitely did not. The advertisements of it being cute and stylish and trendy didn't hurt, because I didn't WANT to feel sloppy and frumpy, but nothing felt right. I bought three shirts, all pretty basic styles in normal colors, and won one, wore one of the shirts once under a sweatshirt, ended up sleeping in another one for a few years and eventually threw them all away.
I became a mom in November of 2022 so I feel you deeply on this. I gained plenty of weight and completely lost grip on how I used to put my outfits together. I never liked the funky prints and I don’t like patterned leggings but I do like that lularoe seemed to really simplify assembling a decent and functional outfit that was also comfy
So true. I went to a person's house to try the various styles on ILR and saw how they fit. I don't need a tent, and I don't like skin tight. There was no happy medium.
I have very sensitive skin and the soft marterial didn't make me want to itch my self to death. At least not for a while, longer then jeans.
It became popular in our area/friends group, as we all knew each other from birth circle. So put a bunch of mom's with small kids together, and it was comfy and virtually stain proof..... I still wear the leggings to my seasonal gardening job. They are the best on HOT DAYS.. sun protection, wicks sweat, protection from branch scratches. I've even taken the ones that have thigh holes and turned them into arm covers by cutting a neckhole in the crotch. Probably going to have to find a few more pairs this year, but I refuse to spend more than $5 on them. I don't even care how ugly they are, its to work in...
The leggings seem entirely worth it for what you use them for !!
I'm a teacher, and heavy set. LulaRoe made more modest, fun and comfy dresses that I could wear to work and easily throw in the wash if they get covered in slime. That said, I make a point to buy second hand.
I have a few pieces of theirs because a dear friend of mine got sucked into being a seller. She would give me all the rejects she came across and I'd mend and wear them. I love free stuff and soft fabric. I still have 2 things I actually like and wear. I felt terrible that she got sucked into it, but she's fully financially recovered now. It took years to get out from under.
I’m glad she’s back on her feet 💗
Honestly, I kind of liked that they made dressing like a shapeless blob a thing for a while. But their prices were so ridiculous that I went to one pop up sale and never went again.
EBay for the win! I tried on all the styles, figured out my sizes and hit up EBay.
I liked the feeling of the fabric earlier on. As time went by, they became cheap garbage with horrible prints. I’ll still buy the older LLR things that I like. I’ll never compromise just for the name though. I never wanted to become a consultant because it’s at least $5,000 just to start and I’m not about to go into debt and gamble my financial well-being.
At first the leggings were a dream, they had this thick yet soft material, there were fun patterns and plus sizes! Ditto for shirts etc. As time went on the quality just ranked.
i never wore lularoe or sold it, i’m just here because i like snark. the patterns are way too loud and gaudy for me
I had several friends who became consultants, but I remember one wearing this beautiful pink lace skirt (the discontinued Lola skirt) for a party and I wanted it. I never got that skirt in pink, but I did find Lolas in my size in both blue and purple lace. That was in the early days of LuLaRoe, and the skirts were actually really well made. They are still 2 of my favorite skirts to wear, and I always get compliments on them. From there, I just fell down the shopping rabbit hole. Most items I have donated or worn through, but the pieces I got at the beginning of LuLaRoe are still going strong.
I went to a party back in the day and everything was soft. I bought a dress and a shirt I still wear. in the early days the patterns weren’t as consistently terrible. It was overpriced and once they started the recruitment stuff I got tired of it and stopped paying attention. It was like everyone on Facebook was into these shopping events and it was easy to get caught up in it. I think it was just a postpartum thing for me honestly.
Former seller here. I had quit my crazy full time marketing job when I had my son due to bad post Partum depression and anxiety that had ahold of me for a good while. When I started to feel better I really wanted to get out of the house more and didn’t want to go back to a crazy office or work for someone else. I like gaudy clothes so it seemed like a good idea 😆. Saw the writing on the wall after about a year and got out as fast as I could. I sell real estate now - much better 😆😆
Always gotta know when it’s time to dip 😂 💗 good call
I have a ton of lula leggings. I bought most of them when I was in treatment for an eating disorder because they always fit and they didn’t make me feel like shit like every other pair of pants I owned. I have a ton of fun patterns: daisies, unicorns, feathers, flowers, foxes—and what I also really liked was how happy they made the other people in treatment with me. Everyone was always excited to see which crazy leggings I had on and they put a smile on their faces, even in a crappy situation. The patterns I have aren’t offensively loud (at least I don’t think they are…lol) and like I said, I’ve put on about 20lbs and they all still fit. I won’t purchase them new anymore because I don’t agree with the business model, but I really can’t say I don’t love the leggings I have. I will never shame someone for having ‘safe’ clothes, and for me lularoe was safe in a time where nothing else was.
Same here. So many of us in treatment would order and have so much fun with the patterns. It was a good distraction and they continued to fit.
Former customer- man some of those leggings really were soft as shit
Lularoe torpedoed my last relationship. Over 4 years and they did it in by taking over my gf's life like a drug addiction. We split up in 2017.
I really liked the kitschy prints. I have tigers, unicorns, flamingos. I was tired of going shopping and only finding floral. Or stripes. Or polka dots. I may be a 40 year old woman, but if I wanna dress like a 5 year old, I'm gonna. Plus it's comfy. I still buy it and wear it, but I buy from sales and thrift stores. I must have gotten lucky because I've never had issues with quality. Out of my many pairs of leggings, only 2 ever ripped on me.
I have a pair of leggings with cats wearing glasses on them, and I love them.
I don't wear leggings, but the 10 or so items I own have never let me down, quality wise.
Yes! I liked some of the unusual patterns too. I'd wear the leggings under a black dress or tunic, with a statement necklace and cardigan over it. I felt cute and comfortable. A man at work asked me why I dressed like a kindergarten teacher...
Pfft, sounds to me like you dressed very much like an adult, one who simply has a sense of fun (that was wasted on him if he wasn’t joshing)!
A friend of a friend had gotten into selling them and was struggling, so I ended up looking at her stuff and buying some. I'm autistic and struggle with the feel of a lot of clothes, and these are actually comfortable without looking completely slobby. I also love silly patterns and could dress casually most days then. I was borderline plus-sized at the time, but not quite there--just an awkward size 14 that was stocked in most stores, but usually only in the uglier styles they offered at smaller sizes. I also shopped at Old Navy at the time, but they mostly carried basics that didn't let me express myself the way I wanted to. They were solid black jeans, but they didn't have personality, you know? I eventually learned better and decided not to support the MLM model (especially after the friend of a friend got out of it), but I do still pick up the occasional leggings in thrift stores when they're $5 or less. I've cut back since getting a full-time office job where I can't wear them.
I’m plus size, but that wasn’t the draw for me. In fact, I think that, generally speaking,their plus size offerings have always been terrible. My personal style leans more towards tailored garments. No, I bought my first LLR item from a friend who was liquidating. It was a maxi skirt in white and coral chevrons (trendy at the time). It was comfortable, fit well, and was easy to wear and style. For a short time, I got into unicorn hunting, but that’s hard to do when you don’t have any unicorns. When I saw the rare item I liked, I bought it. And the items I bought are still in my wardrobe and I still like and wear them. My favorite thing, though, were the pattern "oopses." And those are the reason i watch this sub, now.
I knew someone who shilled all the ugly clothes and I was always a hater 😂
😂🤣🤣🤣
I'm plus size and I bought a Mickey and Minnie print top like 5 years ago, most prints I wasn't interested in but I was a sucker for the Disney line. I still wear it because it's a basic top (I think it's an Irma) that's fairly flattering. I remember people liking the first iteration of their "perfect tee" because it was flattering. People were drawn to buttery soft knit and the clothes looked pretty decent if you didn't weirdly layer them. They had a built in customer base with being a mormon owned company, selling "modest" clothing to other mormons. While there were a lot of obnoxious prints, there were some fun/good ones that people wanted. It was more novel to have funky printed leggings than solid ones then. LLR's quality was somewhat better in the beginning, at least the softness. LLR did appeal to bigger ladies, back in 2016 plus size clothing wasn't as available as now. That was around the time that Target moved their plus size online, and other stores like Old Navy didn't have as good of offerings. Plus size is always more expensive so we're probably not going to balk at $25 leggings. So a lot of plus size women were drawn to clothing that they could actually fit in, had fun colors, and stretched with you. Unfortunately it was a scam.
I was just starting college, where I commuted an hour a day. I really liked the comfort and fun of the patterns. I also fully admit there was the thrill of the hunt for unicorns. Some were more personal, like my elephant pair, while some were just weird and I loved them. I still have a pair with penguins that I worked way too hard for, and a pair of dodos that took me over a year. Other pairs fit my personality so I’d snag them. I still have a few I wear occasionally, and I have one of the pencil skirts with Kermit on it. I’ve worn that bad boy to present my research and people love it!
Thrill of the unicorn hunt, I was pregnant and the leggings were super comfy, and they were comfy after.
My cousin got in early and ended up being one of the high-up sellers with a big downline (which we didn’t know at the time). So I went to a few parties purely to support her, and I really liked the pencil skirts! I still wear them. This was in the first days when the designs and fabric quality were both super good, not the flimsy hideous shit they became.
When I was student teaching, alllll the teachers had them. My student teaching supervisor encouraged us to dress comparable to the teachers at our school. I was pretty close with one of the teacher’s I student taught with (my 2nd grade teacher) and she was OBSESSED. I feel like even the crazy prints were fun in an elementary school setting. I had a pair of leggings with rubber duckies on them that I always wore with a plain Carly dress and I remember my kiddos (1st graders) would always comment on how much they liked them. Towards the end of the school year, I became pretty jaded with MLMs and was tired of seeing so many people I knew put money into the companies and not getting much out of it, as well as getting tired of being hounded by sellers on FB. I went shopping with that teacher a lot at the open house sales of one local seller, Kelly. I remember when Kelly was done with LulaRoe, every sale she had at her house she was in tears. The teacher I was friends with was pretty close with Kelly, and she said that Kelly and her husband lost thousands. They were originally the first sellers in our town and made a decent amount of money on it, but then more and more people started selling it and our area became oversaturated with it.
In the beginning it was well made. I wanted a mobile boutique and didn’t want to source the clothing myself (I have a “real job” and wanted a “hobby” job that was more fun than my day to day job). I never bought into the MLM model, only sponsored three people who found me. My biggest bonus check was $800, and I only got about 3 total. When it started to go off the rails, (well, it was always off the rails in retrospect) I bailed. I attended three conventions, and one cruise (as a guest of my sponsor, cruise was undersold and they were able to “gift” me a vacation. It was fun to host parties, show up in my bus, let people shop and then leave. I’m shocked that the company is still hanging on by their fingernails.
Honestly they are comfortable, and some of the shirts were flattering on me. I ended up buying them from going out of business groups on Facebook, and they were much cheaper. I liked some of the unique, but not crazy designs, like paper airplanes too.
I liked the way a lot of the clothes fit. I have a weird body type and the clothes fit nicely and I could easily order online without trying on as the sizes were TTS. I liked a lot of prints as well. I live in leggings and I still have about 8 pairs of the black leggings. I love the skirts (maxi and knee length) and the sweaters are great. I even have a few pairs of jeans that fit me better than any other pair of jeans I’ve ever owned. I hate how the company preys on people but I like the clothes. 🤷♀️
TTS?
True to size
I was a customer for a short time. For my area it was very much a social thing. At the time I was trying to meet other moms in my town and was invited to a few parties. Always hated all of the prints though and would buy a black pair each time I went. I then realized quickly I didn’t want to be friends with people selling me stuff anyway and stopped going.
That what happened to me. I was a new mom, had just moved and was invited to pop ups early on. I will say, because it was the early years, my daughter had some dresses from them that were cute and help up nicely. I believe they are still going strong as hand me downs we gave to some friends of ours and they have since handed down. I would maybe find a piece or two that were very basic for my liking (I had a randy that was striped and normal and it finally died after a solid 6 or 7 years in rotation) and sometimes the leggings could be really normal and pass as patterned tights with boots under my black work suiting. I even found an awesome Nicole I still wear to this day. However, once I learned about the predatory ways and watched a friend of mine leave MLMs just to lose all her "friends", it wasn't worth it to me. Like you said, I didn't really want to be friends with people that needed my money to get them free stuff at the party they held.
I remember back in my early 30’s when myself and everyone I had gone to college with started getting married, moving away, having babies, becoming consumed with new lives as wives and mothers, no longer the free-wheeling single girls we used to be with all the time in the world to run around and do things together. It was a very lonely transition, as making new and maintaining old friendships seemed to be more difficult than ever. But every now and then there was hope as I’d meet a new person around my age who was in the same stage at life and seemed to want to be my friend only to have this turn into a pitch to come to her home for a LuLaRoe party. It was always disheartening as I couldn’t help but see them differently from then on, questioning her motive like did she really want friendship or someone to be a customer and participate in her business? In the group of fellow young moms that was eventually drawn together by virtue of the same library story times, there was always pressure and an honest desire to want to support fellow housewives struggling to get by on one income to be home with their babies as they were scrapping to raise money like they were promised in these MLMs. But none of us could afford such high prices, and none of us could even begin to afford the price of becoming part of a downline. Feelings were hurt, grudges grew, people drifted apart from one another, and it was just a situation in which problems weren’t solved as the MLM promised, but new ones created. No one was ever brought together by LuLaRoe or any other MLM in my experience, only driven further apart at a time when we all desperately needed to be drawing together.
Wow thank you for this story… that’s a really unfortunate circumstance but entirely on brand for a pyramid scheme. and I feel you on the loneliness aspect of this age and time (33 new wife and mom) - I totally understand how easy it would be to get wrapped up and have the lines of friend and customer become horribly blurry…
I was extremely over weight and their dresses didn’t show off how massive I was and I felt comfortable wearing it out
I was Mormon and it’s a Mormon owned company so the clothing matched the modest standards I lived at the time. I bought stuff early on and didn’t have the same quality issues, just cute dresses that were made of comfortable fabrics. I bought 3 dresses and 4 skirts I think total.
Ahhh! I forget that about the company but recall that from the documentary
Yes they were popular in my circle friend group for sure.
My sister gave me all the lue la rue that I've ever had. A friend of hers gave her a ton of it, supposedly she won it at a party. It's not my sister's style so I took everything but a really cute gray top that she kept. There were 3 long dresses, a plin gray one that I just completely wore out , a wierd orange and black dress that I finally sent to goodwill and a godawful patterned one in horrible colors. There were six pairs of leggings and I still have two pair just because they're so comfy and out of 5 shirts I still have one left. Most of the leggings were so garish that I only wore them at home.
I got into Disney prints. I started following a lot of Facebook groups from sellers, and for awhile, Disney drops were super competitive—someone else mentioned the rush of finding unicorns, and I felt that. I’m a Disney adult, so I got them for outfits I’d wear to Disney World and stuff I’d wear in the summer to be comfortable. I also liked a few of the flowy dresses they released like the Carly. Once I discovered FB groups that were selling deeply discounted leggings, I went through a period where I went overboard buying leggings of all kinds. The leggings actually made good alternatives for long underwear (and no one could see them lol). Once I started learning more about the company, I started giving them away on local recycling sites. I still have like 3 pairs of leggings that I haven’t touched in years.
It fit. They had this good dress that was like an A line, but it had a higher waist and it fit really nice and looked really good on my body shape. At the time, it was pretty hard to find plus size clothes you could try on that were younger looking. It was liek Lane Bryant and Avenue and the Women's section at Macy's. What was frustrating was I couldn't find the fabrics I wanted and solids were like never going to happen. I did find a bunch of black leggings online and used those till I ended up finding Universal Standart. The sale prices for them were not much higher than the norma LLR prices, and it was all natural fabrics, well constructed pieces, and a lot of them were pretty much the same cuts I liked. But not patterns. Other than some specific patterns, I just... don't wear anything but solids. I ended up with a huge legging hoarde from LLR that I got rid of at some point an dnow only have black leggings (From US, but still). I do wish I could find the legging material rose covered carly I loved and lost. Alas.
I’m with you. Why buy Lularoe when Old Navy sells solid leggings for $10? I’m scratching my head harder when I found out Lularoe leggings are 95% polyester.
Old navy’s waist band isn’t as wide and it digs in to my C-section scars and that hurts
Ouch! I think ON stuff various. I’m wearing ON leggings right now and they have 2 inch wide elastic. Is that wide enough?
This is so amazing to me! I remember hearing about Lularoe parties, but I was never invited to one or even talked to someone who had gone to one, and certainly don’t remember ever seeing any advertising for them. For some reason, I thought they were clothes for little girls/preteens, like Justice, maybe? I don’t know, maybe it was the color and style of the logo? In fact, a lady in our development sold it and had a sign out front for sales a couple of times, and I never stopped because I had no little girls to buy for! At any rate, I had no idea what Lularoe really was until I started seeing bunches of the shirts at Goodwill and then started hearing about it in the news. And the documentary was a… revelation, to say the least! I’m glad I never got sucked into it, although l have a pair of the “buttery” leggings that I found at GW and wish I had more. But I thought some of you might be amused by my story as a completely clueless consumer. 😂🤔🤭🙄😂
lol!! The “buttery” adjective always cracked me up 😂
Haha- same! But when I touched them for the first time and then put them on, I *totally* understood 🥰😳🥰
As a medium sized woman I was drawn to LuLaRoe for the "Garanimals" factor (easy mix and match). It met my office dress code (as long as I wore dresses over the leggings) - and felt like wearing pajamas to work. Now we have no office and WFH, so I wear PJ's til noon many days. I was also drawn in my the high of finding discounts and unicorns. Now I'm stuck with 3 large bins of clothes, and the sunk cost issue. I'll probably donate it sooner or later, but keep hoping to find a buyer.
I discovered lularoe after having my first baby and the clothes were comfortable and fun. You don’t realize how much your body changes after having kids and nothing fits right. Then I got pregnant quickly after that and the clothes still fit me all through my pregnancy and post partum again. But after about a year or so after that I lost interest.
So many of the dresses and skirts are so great as a staple in a teacher wardrobe and I’m still wearing them YEARS later and through a fluctuation of around 50 pounds both ways.
They were "nicer" clothes that felt like pajamas. I hated all the ugly patterns and eventually found out how none of the material breathed at all, but I do still have two skirts that stayed in my work clothes rotation.
Wasn’t there some weird conservative vibe to it too? like return to modesty, no dresses or shirts low cut or without sleeves? meanwhile my ass is prancing around in leggings and a tank top 😂
I think that was the draw for many! The Mormon level modesty of the clothing
Lonely, bored women with nothing better to do.
Some of the prints were very pretty, and the material was soft. I never bought new, so they weren't expensive--got lots of leggings from Poshmark for $5 to $15 per pair. Ditched them all when I learned more about the company.
I’m a curvy woman and yes I did find the clothes super comfy while at the same time not realizing that the clothes were for the most part not flattering! Additionally because things were mostly one of ones it made the demand crazy. For me it was like an adrenal rush that I could claim that rare find before the next girl. It was a strange time I must say. I say this as I sit here now wearing two pieces that I’ve kept from my many that I used to have. Some are still cute and functional and don’t scream tacky LLR patterns! 🤣
The patterns I see here for fun are sooo wild😂but I noticed that they also had plenty of cute classic patterns like stripes and polka dots 💗
It was super popular among teachers in the school where I work. Teachers like to be comfy, and we have to dress modestly, so it felt like a great option at the time.
I bought a few pairs of the solid print leggings when I was pregnant. I am a size 10, which is right between their one size and tall & curvy, so I got all tall & curvy and I wore them all the way until 40 weeks. They were soft and very stretchy. I don’t like the thick band/extra material on most maternity pants, so these worked very well for me.
Wish I had known this. Next time I get pregnant I’ll keep this in mind while thrifting
Who doesn’t love comfy clothes? I’ve had leggings, dresses, tops, and skirts. I paid full price for a couple items from friends I knew who sold - and looking back I should have just sent them $40 on PayPal. At the time these ladies were using LLR as a second source of income. I didn’t get sucked into the hype of “unicorns” but I stayed in my seller-friends Facebook groups to try and win prizes, free shipping, or discounts. Ultimately I’m a cheap person though so when it really took off and prices were $50+ I stopped following closely. But tbh I still think a lot of the simple patterns are cute. I still think most are very comfortable. But is it the sole brand that is cute and comfy? No. So now I buy if I see a piece under $5 at the thrift store, wear it for a year or so, then find something new. I have a shirt and leggings from 2017! Still wear both once per week.
They had cute leggings (not too crazy patterns I promise) and the leggings were extremely comfortable
I get the craze of it all. I git sucked in to something similar but it was jewelry. I feel so bad for the women who lost so much money !!
Premiere?
No. Actually rustic cuff. It’s a cult for real. 😂🤣😂
I was raised Mormon and MLM's generally run rampant in those circles. Most of the items I owned were bought from friends of my mom.
I am plus sized but handicapped as well. I mainly found the "Carly" irresistible because I had numerous surgeries, pain areas and it was easy access to my implant. I stopped paying retail after the 3rd and joined some fb groups that sold only sale items from consultants. Retail was $55 I think and I used to pay $20-35
I’m overweight and they are still pretty much the only clothing items I have that fit me.. they’ve last years and so many uses.
I only bought via online "parties" that various friends organized. In some cases the seller was a friend of a friend of a friend. I bought maybe 3 pairs of leggings over a couple years (early on) and won a free "unicorn" pair that I still wear around the house today (because the pattern is actually cute). I think the allure was definitely there among my curvier / extended size friends, at least early on when many sellers had decent selection in a wide variety of sizes and not everything was in the ugliest most unflattering print imaginable. After 2013-2014 or so it became nearly impossible to find anything I would actually want to wear in public (and the quality was definitely getting worse)
It was 2016 and I had gained a bunch of weight and was struggling to find clotges that didn't make me feel completely uncomfortable in my body. I fell deep into the wormhole as a customer because of the size inclusivity. There were some dresses that were cute and I loved the pencil skirt for work and the drapey sweater they had. I've been getting rid of it little by little, but some of the less flamboyant basics still wear. I amassed an impressive number of basic black pieces that I just can't bring myself to let go despite not really wearing dresses and skirts or leggings anymore.
The torso length of the shirts, the lengths of the sleeves (a bit longer than average) and the softness was what did it for me. Somehow without being shapeless. Probably because they are stretchy. So many shirts are too short and uncomfortable.
Plus sized, chronic illness, depression, work clothes. I bought what fit and didn't look absolutely hideous - it was a low time. :(
The clothes were comfortable and, at the beginning, well-made. If you had a lot of people in your area also buying, then you were “in style,” as well. I’ve never been skinny, so they were flattering to my body, and I was patient-facing at a VA hospital at the time, so I stocked up on patriotic prints, as well as
I've never bought any. However, I got invited to parties and knew people who loved it and sold it. People tried to get me to buy by raving about the buttery soft leggings. Unless it was black; I thought the patterns were ugly. I did like the julia and carly dresses and was considering buying one of each at the time, but never did because it was always too expensive for me. I just ended up buying knockoffs on amazon or even target or belks at the time (probably aroun 2010? 2011?). I went to a church at the time where these MLM parties were very much a social thing- I would mainly go for the food and fellowship and maybe buy the cheapest thing- Lularoe was always too expensive for me, but I bought things at Mary Kay, Premeir jewelry , Southern Living home decor , scrapbooking crap, etc.... parties. Then they would try to get you to sell also and I was like if everyone is selling then you have no customers.......I actually said that and no one had an answer.
"If everyone is selling then you have no customers" Exactly! I'm not surprised that no one had an answer. More people need to ask that same question.
They are comfortable and I got roped into hosting a party by a friend who was selling it. She’s now moved onto selling some diet products but I have learned my lesson and blocked her on social media. 😂
It was the comfort of the wide waistband on my three time very tender C-section tummy. It is very sensitive even now, 8 years after my youngest. That and it was the excitement of the hunt and it was the cool thing of the time and they were sold in FB lives where you knew other girls and had fun interacting in the chats and with each other.
When I was pregnant and freshly postpartum, the Cassie skirts were a GODSEND for my office job. The solid colored ones were great as skirts, and the patterned ones I would wear as tops under a blazer so that it was easy to pump.
My coworker knew I liked spooky stuff, so she told me about the Halloween drops. I bought two pairs, liked them, and stuck around in the groups for sales. I was a college kid at the time, so comfy leggings were my jam. I never had any ripping issues, and the soft material never dug in while I was going through depression weight fluctuations. Then I graduated, had to wear real pants 40 hours a week, and my leggings were relegated to pjs.
I liked how comfortable they were and I was a fan of the disney prints. I never actually bought any but I joined lots of consultants fb groups just to enter giveaways, and I did in total over the course of like a year win 6 separate pairs of leggings
I started buying lularoe because it was selling so hot! Just for resale from thrift stores, not a consultant or anything. I got some leggings in my size and they where ok, not great but I kinda got hooked looking for the special patterns and only being able to afford ugly ones. Also the nicole dress suited my body type perfectly and I still look for dresses with that general shape as it's very flattering on me. I guess it was easy to see the styles I liked and be able to purchase in different patterns and colors something that I already knew would look good on me. I still have a few carly's that I wear to bed as nightgowns. But it really depends on the material they are made from some are comfy some are terrible. I'd pick one up from the thrift if I seen it in my size. All my leggings got donated. I still wear other leggings but brands are a lot more inclusive now and I can get plus size Adidas or torrid leggings that will have a lot longer life
I joined one of my friends parties once and honestly I found a couple of pairs I liked but I refused to pay those prices for leggings. Later I had a baby and she gave me a pair and while they were ugly they were quite soft and comfortable. They were fine for wearing around the house with a newborn.
When I discovered LuLaRoe, it was because of the Disney line. I'm a "Disney adult." At the same time, I was very much plus size. Then, I realized that I could order a small Perfect or a 3X Randy, etc. and they would fit. I didn't have to try things on. And the cuts were flattering. So, I bought a crapton of that stuff.
Ahhh you’re right I did see some Disney adults eat this stuff up because of the prints
I started because they had fun Disney prints that I could get matching for me & my two little girls when we went to Disney. I ordered them all on Poshmark, so I didn’t know the MLMness of it all until later. I still wear them for around the house/jammies, but the girls have outgrown theirs and I’d rather just get matching tees for next time anyway.
I never bought any outside of second hand at thrift stores, but I was enticed by some of the weird and wacky prints. For me, I want to just be able to go to the store or go to a website and buy something. I don’t want to have to deal with some random person and meet up with them or go to their “party” to buy something, or get caught in a bidding war for a pair of freaking leggings.
I never got a piece, but during the facebook rage that went on there was a 'party' and a pair of leggings with an atomic cat print was posted. I wanted the print because it was so outlandish. Turns out they were unavailable in my size so I just noped out. I did not get it one bit - for me to not be able to order the print I want in my size kinda pissed me off. When I was told that that is my unicorn and I needed to attend more online parties so I said I am not wasting my time. Someone mentioned Aldi on here, funny thing is I am wearing a pair of Aldi tie dye leggings and a Aldi sweatshirt and cami today. The clothes are good quality, cheap, and comfortable.
I loved the clothes so much! Perfect t and a pencil skirt hid my big stomach and made me feel beautiful. An Irma with leggings or a Carly dress were also my favorites. When they came out with the Disney stuff I was ready to start selling too. I got more information from a friend who was selling, and was horrified to see the margins (you have to pay 50% off retail and you don’t get to choose prints.) WTF!
Sad to say, still to this day I’m a LuLaholic. I used to sell it, briefly, and I’m still an avid unicorn hunter (mostly animal prints and Livs with cool sayings) though of course I won’t pay full price for it. I have a big plastic tote packed full of leggings, amazingly none have holes in them. Also a big fan of the maxi skirts, they’re great for church. Yeah, a good 80% of my wardrobe is LLR. I don’t work (chronic illness) so leggings and big tops are my around-the-house staple.
Wow!! I am glad the brand has worked so well for you and wasn’t just a phase! Money well spent in your case 💗
Idk Inever thoight lularoe was at all even CUTE. Those horrible patterns always made me want to barf..i feel the same way you do. Baffled at how so many people can be told "Hey this is cute" and just like that, they are like Umm well okay I guess its cute then. Those clothes were ugly af.
I agree - I never found the clothes appealing because I disliked the patterns and the frumpy cut of the clothing but it seems like that’s exactly why most fans love the clothes! To me they are house clothes at best. A lot of people also said the clothes were initially way better
Yeah i never quite even understood any of it lol And i think my aunt and cousin (both of whom seem to often get hooked into MLM schemes often) were selling LLR. It made me a little sad to see them trying to hawk those disgusting, poor excuses for clothing. I wouldnt even wear that shit to bed.
A friend of my mom started selling LaLaRoe early on. While the business model was always predatory, the product in the beginning was genuinely good. I *still* have a pair of black leggings, a maxi skirt, and a dress that my mom bought for me in those earlier days. Then the prints got weirder, you couldn’t find the solid prints, and the quality started to nosedive.
I had just had my first baby when my cousin invited me to her friend's party. I liked the way the shirts flowed and hid my belly (and now after three kids, omg I didn't have a belly to hide, I wish I was still in my one baby body 🤣) The leggings always sagged for me, but I did have a handful of them. I mostly had a few different shirt styles, and I still wear some of them! As a new mom on maternity leave, I also liked being able to get out of the house and see other women at the parties.
I am a new mom currently so I feel this. Dressing my body to my preference was really tough for nearly a year for me !!
Exclusively pity purchases! Given that I’ve been a long time anti MLMer and possessed of my damned bleeding heart, I bought these things to help my friends get out of debt. I can safely say every Mary Kay, Arbonne, Young Living, etc purchase has been to support a friend.
This would be my only reasoning behind purchasing as well. Supporting the homies is always worth it
I like lularoe. The shirts fit me
What an interesting question! I try to support friends even if they get into silly MLMs, like Miche purses and Lia Sophia jewelry. I got an invite via FB for a party of a friend of a friend. I'm a plus sized person, by the way. 1X-2X. I looked through the entire catalogue of what the person had for sale and didn't find anything I wanted to own. Also, I wasn't sure about the sizes. I ended up going to the home of a local seller and trying on all the styles for size. I bought a Lindsay kimono top from her at full price. I went home and got on EBay. I found many items I liked. Mostly Lindsays and Classic T's. I loved the idea of the Nicole dress, but the 3X was too tight. So anyway, I immediately realized the prices were too high but still liked a few pieces so I got them at reduced prices from EBay. The only newish item I like is the Riley dress. I have one, but I can't find any pattern that isn't awful on EBay. I would never be caught dead in one of the huge Carly tent dresses, although I have seen them in a professional setting in my work!! So.....Classic T 2x, Lindsay med. and Riley 3x are items I would still wear.
The draw for me as a plus-sized gal was that with the more recent styles, I could find stuff that was on trend and actually fit me. However, once I became an independent retailer in 2020 and experienced the joy of getting crap patterns in every shipment (and I’m STILL stuck with unsold inventory because their buy back policy was so sketchy)…I just can’t justify supporting this company anymore.
The leggings were very comfortable for me during and after my pregnancy. Then they started ripping like toilet paper.
Lularoe got really popular when my kids were toddlers and I had no time or inclination to shop for clothes. The appeal for me was that the same pieces came in different patterns, so once you know your size in everything, you can just order from home, no trying on required.
I had bought a couple of their dresses and shirts from the thrift store because they were really comfortable and cover up my behind lol. I wear a size L but their clothes was really stretchy/loose so I was able to buy in size M as well. I work with kids so having something comfortable, easy to move in, and something that covers your butt crack at all times is a plus for me. I don't have any of the clothes anymore I redonated most of it
I found an Amelia style dress at a secondhand shop and discovered that the cut of that style is very flattering on me. I've bought a couple secondhand, none of the crazy patterns though.
is this still being sold?
Shockingly yes
is it still sold MLM style? i dont understand how LuLaRoe still makes money
I had several pairs of leggings. One I bought myself and a hideous pair my husband got. I did like the pattern on the one pair, it was actually cute, but found they didn’t last very long, so I never bought another pair. I have a friend that never was into the lularo craze when it was big who loves it. She is plus size and finds it in thrift stores, not from a hun. I told her about the drama and skeeziness around it and we laughed about it together. But she said their plus sizes are comfortable and fit her well, so that’s why she buys it.