Montreal-based fashion brand Frank and Oak launched its “Style Plan” back in 2018 where their in-house stylists would curate a selection of Frank and Oak products to ship out to clients. Each month, clients would receive an email with the recent picks and would automatically ship to customer. All items could be returned; however, a $25 styling fee would be charged if items purchased cost less than $25. There were other benefits (like 20% off their website, etc.) included with the service, but this was the core feature for the “Style Plan” service.
Starting in July 2021, Frank and Oak notified its “Style Plan” clients that the company was discontinuing the subscription service.
While not outright stating that they were cancelling the “Style Plan” service, Frank and Oak basically is cancelling this service. The rationale provided for the change was “As part of our environmental pledge, we’ve decided to remove monthly boxes in order to reduce our footprint while offering a seamless shopping experience”.
In place of the “Style Plan” service, Frank and Oak is offering a free loyalty program which provides benefits such as member pricing, early access to new collections & events, private sales, and free shipping & returns on all orders. Most of these are standard fare for most online clothing retailers at this point.
In June 2020, Frank And Oak filed for bankruptcy protection with about $19 million in debts. The company launched as an online menswear brand in 2012 and began opening stores after that, and in 2017 launched womenswear that included some standalone women’s stores. The company had 20 stores and now only has a handful in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. Frank And Oak has struggled for several years and came up with creative ways to stay in business, including a partnership with Postmedia for advertising in return for an equity stake as well as with landlord Cadillac Fairview. In March 2020, Frank And Oak co-founder Ethan Song left the company.
