Have you ever had that gut-wrenching moment in a shop changing room where nothing you have brought in fits? Or that sinking feeling when you know your favourite dress just doesn't fit you anymore? I know I have...and I know I have blamed myself and my body during those moments.
I have been a fashion designer for almost 10 years now, having worked in multiple brands over the years. I've always followed the same old fashion mentality when it comes to sizing; we design and fit to a size 8-10 'sample size' and then just grade up to the other sizes and don't spare a thought for those different body types. It was during the time I was in the middle of studying for my Master's degree in 2020 that things began to change for me. Like everyone else, I was quickly sent home from university at the beginning of that first pandemic lockdown. So quickly I didn't even get time to take any patterns or a mannequin home with me. So here I was, developing a collection alone with no one but myself to try my garments on with. It then dawned on me...I am not 'sample size'...I haven't been since I was a teenager....and I will likely never be again. I can't actually try these clothes on to see if my work actually looks any good, which when you think about it is completely bizarre.
This simple realisation changed the entire direction of my designer career and the very early stages of EROSA was born.
My MA collection, titled 'Corpora Omnia', was the first time I had explored approaching size from a more open and adaptable angle. I developed my colour coded sizing system, choosing to remove the anxiety I had always felt myself when buying clothes by saying no to numbers. I had spent years being a part of a system which made people feel the need to cut the size label out of their jeans, and I decided enough was enough.
Fast forward to 2022, I had just completed the biggest project of my career so far and had learned that my approach to design could also impact the way we see sustainable clothing. Armed with my next collection, 'Monachopsis', a business plan and a dream...EROSA was finally launched on the world. I launched the collection at Northern Fashion Week, earning me the Northern Innovation Award and later that year I launched the website.
I have been so lucky over the last 2 and a half years, I have learned so many things about myself as a designer and a person. I have fallen back in love with my body and fallen deeper in love with fashion. All I hope for EROSA is to make one person feel valid in their body, because it isn't our bodies that are the problem. It's our clothes. And it is time to change them not us.