Let me tell you something about swimsuit shopping while curvy. It is a full contact sport. You are tugging, you are Googling “does this top run small,” you are standing in a fitting room negotiating with a underwire like it owes you money. So, when I tell you I got on a call with a founder who built an entire plus size swimwear brand around the radical idea that our bodies don’t need fixing, I need you to sit all the way down.

For Nadja, the founder of French Caribbean swimwear brand Emrald, that familiar frustration became part of the reason she decided to build something different. Her approach to swimwear goes beyond extending a size range. She wants plus-size women to see themselves represented in colorful, fashionable designs that consider how their bodies actually move and feel.

Image via Nadja Eugene

Why I’m The One Bringing You This Story

I’m Jerri, Assistant Managing Editor here at The Curvy Fashionista. My work puts me close to the plus-size fashion market, where I’m constantly paying attention to which brands are creating meaningful options for women and which ones are simply using inclusive language in their marketing.

I’ve covered swim all year, from the Cherri Cheeks line to profiling real curvy women living their best life in our “Becoming Hilda” series. I know the difference between a brand that slaps “inclusive” on a landing page and a brand that actually engineered a swimsuit for a D cup doing a cannonball.

I’m also a woman with a bust that has personally ended more than one vacation shopping trip. So when Nadja started talking about support, fabric, and why she refuses to let Emrald use “corrective” language, I wasn’t just nodding along as an editor. I was nodding along as a customer.

That’s why I wanted to talk with Nadja. I wanted to understand what happens when a founder approaches plus-size swimwear with the intention of creating something that women can actually enjoy wearing, rather than simply offering another extended size range.

The Moment Emrald Had To Exist

Emrald is a French Caribbean brand, and Nadja was blunt about what pushed her to start it. French swimwear, she told me, loves to advertise size range without actually showing up for the women wearing it.

“You would have some brands that would go up to fifty two, but at the same time they would give you a wonderful thirty six women,” she said. “That was the first thing that went wrong in my head.”

That disconnect was personal, too. Nadja had watched her own sister navigate the swimwear market as a curvy woman, and she wanted to create something that offered a different experience.

“Having a sister who is also a curvy woman, I thought that I would love to actually bring on the table a true representative brand,” Nadja said. “You could be fifty two or forty six, or in the US market you can be size twenty two or ten, and you could actually see very feminine, very audacious and confident plus size women.”

I love that her sister is the origin story here. When we build things for the people we love, it stops being a business plan and starts being a love letter. And that love letter turned into a full plus size swimwear brand built to actually fit the women it claims.

The Meaning Behind the Name Emrald

Ask Nadja why the brand is called Emrald and she’ll take you straight to her jewelry box.

“My personal favorite gemstone is emerald,” she said. “When I found out that it was also one of the gemstones that actually represent true femininity, that made sense for me. I just write it down another way for SEO, but it is Emrald, and it’s the true representation of femininity.”

No Corrective Language, No Apologies

If there is one thing you take from this article, let it be this quote. I asked Nadja what philosophy she built the brand around, and she did not hold back.

“Some plus size brands would talk more about correction,” she said. “They would use some corrective words just to make sure that you can be thinner, or your waist could be smaller. With us, we don’t talk about it. We talk about true femininity. You being you in that swimsuit is just a plus. It’s just the cherry on top. But you are perfectly fine the way you are.”

That distinction matters. For years, plus-size women have encountered swimwear marketing that emphasizes minimizing, smoothing and shaping their bodies. Nadja is approaching the conversation differently. She wants women to enjoy the swimsuit they’re wearing without feeling like they need to change anything about themselves first.

Nadja traces that mindset back to growing up in Guadeloupe. “Coming from and being based in Guadeloupe, there are so many shapes of bodies around us, and it’s not really a big thing for us to have curvy women around us,” she told me. “It’s quite natural for Caribbean people to just show what you have.”

Image via Pexels by Marc Tdh Supertramp

She said it plainly and I’m still thinking about it: “We turned out to be a plus size woman or a curvy woman, but most important, a woman.”

The Fabric, The Fit, And The Jet Ski Test

Nadja didn’t come to Emrald with a traditional design background. Instead, she approached the process by listening, researching and working with professional stylists to better understand what women were missing from the swimwear market.

“Basically three things came out again and again,” she said. “It’s not very fashioned, not really stylish, and sometimes when it is stylish it’s not very colorful. It would be the same purple, blue, or black.”

So she went the other direction entirely, sourcing an Italian fabric called Econyl, a stretch fabric that’s also sustainable, and building support into the pieces without turning them into a corset.

“I make sure that I choose the right fabric,” she said. “Everything will be at the right place, and you don’t have to be in a kind of corset that’s uncomfortable at the end of the day. But comfortable doesn’t mean your bra doesn’t need the same support, because it’s heavier, and also you have to make sure that if you want to go on a jet ski, everything sits at the right place.”

A plus size swimwear brand that is thinking about your bust support during an actual jet ski ride, and not just while you’re laying still on a towel, is a brand that did its research. She backed that up with a story about her best customer, a woman with a larger bust who is not even plus size, who bought every top from the first collection just to survive cruises and jet skiing without a malfunction.

“It was quite difficult for her to find tops that would fit her larger breast,” Nadja said. “She actually bought every top of the first collection just to make sure that when she goes on a cruise, when she goes on jet ski, everything will be always perfect for her.”

As someone who has personally had a top attempt to abandon ship mid wave, I felt that story in my chest. Literally.

How Guadeloupe Shapes Emrald’s Approach to Sustainability

I asked why sustainability mattered to her personally, not just as a marketing angle, and her answer went straight to geography.

“Coming from an island, we are probably more exposed than anyone else regarding climate change,” she said.

“I wanted to make sure to work with great manufacturers but also with great fabrics. Using recycled fabrics, but still high quality fabrics, aligns with my own values. When you live on an island where at some point you have hurricanes, it’s quite easy for you to think that of course you want to do business, but you also want to contribute to something better.”

She’s also built the brand around longevity instead of trend cycles, which is a bold move in an industry addicted to the next micro season.

“True feminine mathematics would be to buy timeless pieces,” she said. “In ten years from now you could wear the same swimsuit and be like, my god, I just love it and it fits me.”

What Quality and Premium Mean to Nadja

“People usually claim premium brand, high end brand, high quality brand,” she said. “But only your customer can tell you if you deliver a premium product.

Premium doesn’t always mean pricey, but of course it comes with a cost to deliver the right fabric. We make sure that it makes sense for people when they buy from us, that they understand why it costs what it costs.”

Then she added the line that sealed it for me: “Premium comes also with patience. Premium comes also with slow fashion, just to make sure that you find the right fit, the right support, the right fabric.”

Reva, The First Piece, And The Test That Worked

Every brand has an origin piece. For Emrald, it’s Reva, a one piece in emerald green.

“When I started working on Emrald, I designed a one piece swimsuit which is Reva,” Nadja said. “It’s very timeless, very elegant, very classic. Who would buy it would be absolutely surprised, because it doesn’t look that great until you put it on and you see by yourself that it’s a great product.”

Image via emrald-swimwear.com

Nadja approached the first collection with intention. Rather than introduce everything she envisioned for Emrald at once, she wanted to start with a focused selection and give the brand room to grow.

And when that first swimsuit landed with a real customer, the feeling wasn’t relief that people liked her product. It was something more specific.

“I know that the products are great, but I was very happy because I knew that this woman would use it in her life,” Nadja said. “When I thought about creating a fashion brand, I didn’t think about sales first. I thought about bringing joy to women, and making sure that when you have this swimsuit in your suitcase on your way to your holiday, you’re happy because you know it will be perfect and you’ll have a great time.”

Chapter Two: Bigger, Bolder, More Fashion

Collection number one was the test run. Collection number two is where Nadja said she’s letting the brand fully exhale.

“The second one is more like, welcome, truly welcome to Emrald,” she said. “It’s more audacious. We made more bold choices. More color, more texture. It’s even more fashion than the first collection.”

She thinks of each collection as a chapter in a longer story about the brand, and this next chapter is introducing beachwear beyond swimsuits, all in service of one goal: putting “plus size,” “curvy,” and “fashion” in the same sentence without an asterisk.

“Sometimes we think about fashion in terms of trendy, but it’s not about being trendy,” she said. “It’s about being timeless, being elegant, and also being stylish.”

Every single piece is named after a beach or landmark in Guadeloupe, which is exactly the kind of detail that turns a swimsuit into a whole vacation. Her pick for a first time Emrald shopper besides Reva is a burgundy two piece called the Saline, named after one of the island’s beaches.

“Every woman loved it,” she said. “Burgundy is a great color on every type of woman.”

The Fashion Show Where She Was The Only Plus Size Brand In The Room

Nadja took Emrald to its first swimwear show in Guadeloupe and she was the only plus size brand there.

“We were the first to bring in the same room curvy women, confident women, smiling women wearing very great and colorful fashion pieces.”

The crowd’s reaction says everything about how starved this market has been for real representation.

“Every woman would say thank you, or in French, enfin, which means what a relief,” Nadja said. “Finally we have something for us. Finally we have something colorful. Finally we have something fashionable.”

That show also led to Emrald’s first local retail partnership in a Guadeloupe boutique, an opportunity she hadn’t planned for but grabbed anyway. Her philosophy on that? Simple and a little bit spiritual.

“I’m very religious, and I feel that each time you have an opportunity you didn’t plan to have, it was written somewhere and you have to go for it,” she said. “That’s my only advice, truly.”

When Customers Take Swimwear Beyond the Beach

This might be my favorite detour in the entire conversation. Turns out Emrald customers started wearing the pieces off the beach entirely, styling the one piece as a bodysuit and the tops as crop tops with high waisted jeans.

“I didn’t plan to actually design a body,” Nadja said, laughing about it. “But it turned out to be like that, and they did it perfectly well, and it gave me even more ideas for the future.”

She found out the same way most of us find out anything now: social media. “We saw it on our social media when they tagged us,” she said. And instead of ignoring it, she’s letting her customers help write the next chapter.

“Our customer basically also helps us design the story,” she said. “I’m a really good listener of my customer. When they give me some room for improvement, I’m trying to write it down and keep that in mind for the next collection.”

Her Advice To Curvy Women Who Are Scared Of A Two Piece

I asked Nadja directly what she’d say to curvy women who’ve been told their whole lives they can’t wear a two piece. Her answer doubled as the brand’s whole reason for existing.

“I would answer with our tagline, which in French is ‘née pour briller.’ In English it would be born to shine,” she said. “No matter your size, no matter your shade of color, you can wear whatever you want.

Image via @emrald.swimswear

That doesn’t make sense for me, telling a woman she can’t wear something because of her body. I’ve seen women around me in Guadeloupe and in the Caribbean wearing whatever they want, and they’re absolutely fabulous.”

Then the mic drop: “The only piece of advice I would give a woman trying to find her way in this society is to do yourself. Just do yourself, and you would feel yourself. That’s it.”

The Legacy She’s Building

Swimwear is just the opening chapter for Nadja. When I asked what legacy she wants Emrald to leave behind, she talked about the brand like it’s still a work in progress on purpose.

“I feel like I could bring so much on the table with this brand, and it’s just getting started,” she said. “The key vision for this brand and for the legacy would be to leave a brand that is timeless, that is known for quality, for true inclusivity.”

She’s intentionally starting narrow, focused exclusively on plus size women for now, before expanding.

“I prefer to step out one step after another, to make sure that we deliver each audience in the right way, and to make sure that we do a great job before moving further,” she said. “That’s the legacy I want to leave with Emrald.”

What’s Next And Where To Find Her

For plus-size women who have spent years looking for swimwear that feels fashionable, supportive and representative, Emrald is another brand worth getting to know.

Nadja is building something rooted in her experiences, her community and the women who have helped shape the brand along the way. And if there’s one thing she wants women to take away from Emrald, it’s that they don’t need permission to wear what makes them feel good.

Explore Emrald’s collection at Emrald’s official website.