Ella Richards, a Brooklyn-based seamstress and struggling fashion designer, works as a freelancer to pay her bills. She has a talent for designing plus-sized clothing and is often overlooked by the high-end fashion industry due to her own experience of being excluded from it. Her best friend and roommate, Katie, has ambitions to become a fashion editor at Look magazine but finds the environment unpleasant and unfriendly, especially from her boss, Claudia Davenport and her assistant Liza.
On the first day of Derek Colby's assignment at the magazine, Ella helps Katie with an important fashion shoot. Derek secretly asks Ella for a crash course in fashion design to assist him in his task. Ella chooses him as her teacher due to his knowledge of fashion and not being intimidated by him, which most people find attractive. Derek falls for Ella and wants to write an article on her design career in the magazine. However, he faces opposition from both Claudia and Liza.
Beyond whether Derek can change the magazine's fortunes with this new direction, what happens between Ella and Derek will depend on whether she herself is confident enough in herself and Derek, who generally can have any woman he wants on his arm.