Why We Started Bubbly: Curvy Fashion is lacking in thoughtfulness

A Conversation That Changed Everything

We’d been talking about launching something for years. But it was during a girls’ trip in 2024 (somewhere between cocktails and deep conversations) that everything finally clicked.

Lily turned to me and said,
“You should be the face of this brand.”

At first, I thought she was joking. But she wasn’t.

She’d been thinking about starting a curvy fashion line for over a decade, and all the stories I’d shared – the shopping frustrations, the lack of confidence, the endless tailoring – were exactly the problems we wanted to solve.

That’s when we realised we were the perfect team.

Lily excels at the ins and outs of setting up a business and understands the pain points of a curvy girl, while I served as both the sounding board and the model for our designs.

And both of us were ready to create fashion that didn’t just fit but made women feel confident when wearing them.

We got to work immediately – sketching, sourcing, testing.

Lily even came over to dissect my wardrobe, questioning why so many of my pieces had to be altered just to look so that they work for my curves.

 

The Silent Shift in Sizing

Over the years, we’ve had this conversation more times than we can count: “Do you remember when a size M actually felt like a size M?”

A decade ago, a size M was what it claimed to be – a medium.

Today, for some fashion labels, that same measurement has been quietly relabelled as a size L. What used to be a size L is either gone or now considered “plus size.” And that matters more than people realise.

It’s the creeping feeling that the industry is slowly closing its doors on inclusivity and curvy women.

Clothes that once fit comfortably now feel tight.

Sizes that used to be on the racks are simply no longer there.

It’s not just about having fewer options. It just sucks when the unspoken message sent says “we don’t design for you anymore”.

That moment made us realise the issue at heart:

Curvy fashion isn’t lacking in proper sizing — it’s lacking in thoughtfulness.

— Joey & Lily
Co-Founders of Bubbly