Fashion to Figure Co-founders Nicholas and Michael Kaplan (right), with their father, Steven (center)
Family and fashion are intertwined for Michael Kaplan. His great-grandmother created the first commercially-made maternity dress and founded the plus-size retailer Lane Bryant, which became the family business his father would run. Following in their footsteps, he and his brother, Nicholas, launched Fashion to Figure in 2002, which provides fashion in women’s sizes 12-26. Parkinson’s disease also plays a role in his family’s story: his late grandmother had the disease and his father has lived with it for nearly 20 years.
This Parkinson’s Awareness Month, Michael and Fashion to Figure are doing their part to help speed a cure for PD. At all Fashion to Figure stores (located in New York, New Jersey and Maryland), shoppers can show their support by purchasing a Team Fox bracelet for $2, with 100 percent of the proceeds going toward The Michael J. Fox Foundation, or by making a direct donation. Mark your calendars for April 20, when Fashion to Figure will donate 10 percent of all sales to MJFF.
This marks the third year in a row the retail chain has raised awareness and funds for Parkinson’s research throughout April. Over the past two years, this has generated more than $30,000 for MJFF; this year, Michael hopes they will raise over $25,000. “Each year we try to get more creative with our fundraising,” he says. “For example this year we’re donating $1 for every ‘like’ we get on Facebook every Tuesday in April.”
Through Fashion to Figure’s month-long drive, “we feel like we’re making a difference,” Michael says. “The Michael J. Fox Foundation is run like a business—and one that I’d buy stock in. Their work is helping my dad and truly advancing the cause.”
He acknowledges it’s been tough to see how Parkinson’s has affected his dad, whom Michael had seen as omnipotent while growing up. “Even though he was a CEO, my dad always made time for me, especially when I faced a serious illness as a child. Now the situation is reversed, and he needs help. Supporting the Fox Foundation is something I can do for him.”
Michael admires MJFF’s ability to bring all the players in PD research to the table to find a cure—from industry, the academy and the patient community. “The Foundation’s approach is like a breath of fresh air, and one that was missing when my dad was first diagnosed in 1994,” he says.
Fashion to Figure stores are a part of local communities, guided by his family’s belief in providing customers with a better, more personal retail experience. “This is a family business and Parkinson’s is in our family. We’re grateful to use our business to help people—that is what we value and is also part of our DNA as a family and company, literally.”