ICONIC CURVES
Serena gives a new meaning to plus size fashion.
As far back as she could remember, Serena always had a keen interest in beauty and fashion trends. She looked to magazines, television and music for inspiration and couldn’t wait to recreate her favourite looks. Like many others, the issue she had was the difficulty in finding trendy and chic clothing made in plus sizes. For years she grew frustrated with her options as a young plus size consumer, especially in Bermuda.
Start To Fashion
After studying Mass Communications in New York City she landed an internship with a modelling agency working in their plus size division. At MSA Models she learned the business aspect of online retail like how to market and advertise to their plus size consumers. The knowledge and experience she attained helped her to launch Iconic Curves, and provide curvy and plus size women on the island with choice and variety when it comes to their personal style.
Iconic Curves caters to curvy and plus size women sizes 12-26w who enjoy wearing trendy and fashionable clothes that make a statement. The brand is for women who are fashion forward, like to stay on trend, and be bold in their style choices.
When asked what was the meaning behind the name Iconic Curves Serena stated," When I think of all the Iconic women who I look up to as a representative of style, class, sophistication, power and intelligence, many of them are not model thin but have womanly curves, such as Oprah, Jill Scott, Beyonce, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Obama, Queen Latifah to name a few. So when thinking of a name for my business, I wanted my customers to embrace their curves and to feel strong and beautiful like the icons”.
The Fashion Career
She says her favourite part of her career is creating and forming her own brand that is reflective of her personal style and identity. She has fun going through the process of selecting the styles to bring in, and then being able to have full creative control on set at our photoshoots. She controls the Iconic Curves brand through advertisements and campaigns, as it brings her much joy and is truly a passion of hers to see plus size women celebrated through positive imagery as opposed to being made a mockery of. Overall, Iconic Curves represents the everyday woman who may not feel that it celebrates her “straight size” or thinner comrades, it’s a reminder to all women to practice radical self love. She enjoys getting positive feedback from customers who are excited about fashion again, and want to show off their beautiful curves instead of hiding them.
Serena says that the main pros of this career and brand concept is that she gets to interact with beautiful plus size women in Bermuda and contribute to the plus size fashion and body diversity movement here on the island. She strongly says that, "All women are beautiful, all bodies are beautiful. Once that message is clear I feel like most of my work is done". So far the only con is being very new to the public and having to promote their business. In the near future she would like to complete a Masters degree and continue to grow Iconic Curves to include other products and fashion/beauty related services. Perhaps, as the economy and retail sector improves, this may include a small shop.
By: Shantia Seymour
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