Consignment Shop Owner Jazmin Whitmore: Always Finding More to Love
PHOTO CREDIT: Libby Gamble
Written by Rosa Linda Fallon
Local Consignment Shop Owner Jazmin Whitmore is a unicorn in the fashion world. As a curvy, queer woman of color, Jazmin runs her business as a statement that directly challenges beauty ideals, and she leads her life authentically with “radical honesty.” She maintains a positive attitude, and doesn’t allow space for shame or regrets. “I’m not going to regret what I said ten minutes ago,” she says, laughing.
Her story begins at seventeen years old when she dropped out of high school and ran 665 miles away from her home in Michigan to North Carolina. With an upbringing that left her with minimal skills and significant emotional trauma, Jazmin admits that her life has been far from easy. She spent several years in and out of homeless shelters, trying to work and support herself. She was on disability for a period of time, but never gave up her dream of one day owning her own business. Over time, she learned to tell herself a different story. “Instead of seeing myself as broken because of what I went through, I started to see myself as strong for surviving it,” she says. “I learned to recognize the skills I already had and to place importance on them.” In her mid-20s, she got her GED and her Natural Hair Care License and began working in a salon in downtown Asheville.
One day, while shopping downtown for an outfit, she realized how limited fashion options were for curvy women. She remembers “being so excited” when she finally found one item for a lower price point of $70 after five hours of shopping. An experience that should’ve been fun and pleasant turned out to be exhausting and discouraging. Most American women are a size 14 or larger, yet a majority of the clothing markets stop making clothes at a size 12.
Jazmin recognized the lack of options curvy women had, especially in vintage and consignment shops. She says that long ago, she adopted a guideline: If she finds herself complaining about something for a long period of time, then she needs to start thinking about solutions. Jazmin says she had always loved fashion as a means to express herself, so it made sense for her to open a consignment shop.
In February 2019, Jazmin opened More to Love Consignment, a consignment shop that caters to curvy women on a budget. But More to Love is much more than just a store – it is a movement – a call to action to directly challenge fashion and beauty ideals and judgmental attitudes towards curvy bodies. It is also a community of loyal and enthusiastic customers, some of which have even committed to “never shopping at Torrid again.” Jazmin says, “I take great pains to make sure our inventory is not only affordable but offers a wide range of price points, so we can accommodate almost any budget.” She adds that affordability is why she chose a more remote location for her shop. “I picked a location further out intentionally so that I could save on rent and therefore offer prices I couldn’t in a busier area. Plus we have parking!”
However, she admits that it can be challenging getting the word out, especially since she mostly relies on word-of-mouth recommendations. She says, “I feel like my biggest challenge is and continues to be getting the word out to people that would shop at about More To Love if they knew about us. I have always operated on a shoestring budget so I have not done a lot of advertising. I advertise when I can but mostly rely on word-of-mouth recommendations.”
While More to Love might operate on a small budget, Jazmin’s heart for the community is big. She and her team support several nonprofits in the area, including Homeward Bound, Asheville Period Project, and several women’s shelters.
Jazmin stresses the importance of “radical honesty” in business in regards to inspiring and supporting an entrepreneurial mindset in ourselves and those around us.” As she looks back and thinks about how long it took her to learn how to manage success in her life, she is honest when she says: “I think it was because my idea of what successful entrepreneurs looked like was actually wrong from the start; I thought of them as people who had it together and not people who couldn’t keep a job; I thought they had to be wealthy or at least financially stable and educated.” She adds, “the ideas I had in my head about who I thought I had to be to get where I am today never did anything but keep me blind to my own potential and the possibilities all around me.”
Jazmin is now always open to new possibilities, all while remaining content with where she currently is in her life and in her business. Perhaps one day, she might open a secondary location, or maybe even start her own clothing line. For now, she is thankful to live out her passion by helping other women feel beautiful.
“My favorite thing about my journey is that I get to follow my passions while doing everything I can to make problems I have struggled with a little easier for others,” she says, adding that she loves seeing the surprise on shoppers’ faces when they find clothes they love for such a low price. “It makes me feel proud that I turned all of my bad shopping experiences and struggles with self-love into a business that exists to help people feel good about themselves. It's a big reason why I smile so much.”
More to Love Plus Size Consignment
606 New Leicester Hwy Unit B
Asheville, NC 28806