VALDOSTA — Perfectly Priscilla, an online boutique, opened in 2014 in Deidre Thompson’s foyer as a part-time job with a few boxes and has since exploded into a multi-million dollar business.

Thompson originally had another business in Sparks, where she first started Perfectly Priscilla. The freshly minted boutique was an evening job, Thompson said. After six months, the business outgrew her house so she rented a warehouse for her business. A year and half later, she moved her business to an 18,000-square-foot warehouse in Valdosta.

Thompson started her business because most boutiques service women who are between the sizes zero and eight, she said. The average size worn by women is a size 14.

For her, this was a problem.

“I’m 35 and have two children,” she said. “I am not a size eight.”

After she had her second child, she went into an “in between” size, she said. “Nothing fit.”

She talked to her friends and realized she was not alone and this wasn’t just her problem, it was a common plight among women.

To top it off, the clothing that did fit looked like “bed sheets and drab” and used “old patterns,” she said.

She decided she could fix the problem. So, she started to take designs from small, medium and large clothing and reworked them to “be more flattering for curvy women,” Thompson said.

Her aim is to make clothing that is “cute, fun and affordable,” she said.

She said traditionally there is a mark up on clothing for plus-sized women. The cost for a small, medium or large article of clothing is roughly the same, but the extra large clothing is twice the price.

“There’s no reason you go from a $40 dress to a $70, $80 dress because it’s an extra-large,” she said.

To keep her prices down, she simply doesn’t take the mark up on the items, she said.

In the future, she said she plans to build a manufacturing plant in Valdosta to make clothing here, rather than having it made elsewhere in the United States.

The manufacturing plant would bring an estimated 40-50 jobs to the county, she said. It would create skilled workers and help them “learn a life-time skill.”

While some would argue the cost of building a plant in Valdosta would be expensive, for Thompson it wouldn’t affect her price point too much.

“The cost wouldn’t be too different,” she said. “I don’t buy anything overseas. We don’t deal in foreign products.”

Building the plant will bring Valdosta back something it has been missing for a while: clothing manufacturing.

“In the South, 20-30 years ago, this was one of the largest areas for manufacturing clothing,” she said.

Since, the clothing manufacturers have moved to oversea markets, she said.

At the end of the day, the most gratifying part of her job isn’t getting paid or owning a multi-million dollar company, it is seeing women wear the clothing she designed for them out in public.

“I’ll see women out with our clothing on, and that is the biggest compliment,” she said.

Perfectly Priscilla does not have physical locations and is solely an online boutique, but it does offer local pick up. It carries sizes 10 through 32 for women.

It is located at 1428 Harbin Circle and office hours are 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit www.perfectlypriscilla.com, find Perfectly Priscilla on Facebook or call (229) 469-9627. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1256.