00:00You guys like She-E-O, huh? You can take that. Take it, girl. Take it and run
00:04with it. My name is Elizabeth Taylor and I am the She-E-O of Curvy Beach Bathing
00:09Suits. I came to NYU drama school when I was 18 from Southern California. After I
00:17graduated I decided to love my body as is and went on auditions. I met with
00:23agents and was told point-blank, you're too pretty to be the fat girl and too
00:27fat to be the pretty girl. Someone suggested I start plus-size modeling
00:30and I fell into the industry that I've been in gratefully for about 13 years now.
00:35Being from California and going to Miami Beach a lot, I just wanted something
00:40edgier. Not necessarily sexier but the iconic bathing suit and I knew I
00:44couldn't find it. So I knew there was a market for more ranges of sizes for
00:49string bikinis. I was more than happy to make my apartment my workspace. This is
00:53the living room of my fifth floor walk-up and it truly acts as my studio.
00:59This is just a little bit of clothing I have. It's a vintage collection that I've
01:03gathered over the years. Very hard to find plus-size vintage so that's where a
01:06lot of my inspirations from and that also motivates me to make great clothes
01:10for women of all sizes. But this is really where I use as my office. I do my
01:14sketching here. I've been using the same sketching croquis for three years now but
01:19I think it has good energy to it. My swatches, color cards, again it's all about
01:24fabric because that's what the customer's putting on her body so it's very
01:27important that I have beautiful soft fabrics. And then my other home base
01:32would be my bedroom where I do my immediate work. So that's text in the
01:36morning, emails to important people, warehouse, factory and then once I've had
01:40my first cup of coffee I set up in the living room.
01:44I told myself I would spend $10,000. That was to get the patterns made to start the
01:48production but I'll never forget the day I needed to buy the plane tickets for my
01:53models and I to go down to Miami to shoot. And my hand was shaking on the
01:57computer. It was like $1,500 of airline tickets. I was freaking out. And I called my
02:01model and I said, I can't deal. I don't know if this is the right thing to do. I've
02:06not sold anything. I'm freaking out. And she said, Elizabeth, don't be like our
02:10clients that spend all this money on development but they don't spend any
02:14money to promote it. We deserve what the other companies do. And then I purchased
02:18the ticket and that's how it all started. I made the first hundred suits and they
02:22sat right here in my living room. And every day I would wake up and stare at the
02:26box and suddenly I doubted myself. It's very hard without being emotional to
02:30describe what it was like when the video, the refinery video hit. I was going to a
02:34play with a friend and I was selling maybe one a week. So I get up to go to the
02:38ladies room and I checked my phone and suddenly ten orders had appeared. And
02:42then we walked across the street and another ten orders had appeared. And I
02:44was like, what is going on? And I checked my email and the video had gone live and
02:48there was already like a hundred thousand views within a few hours. By the
02:51time I woke up that morning I had sold every single suit out and that became
02:55crystal clear that not only had I made my money back but I was starting to have a
02:59profit. When the women started getting their bathing suits that's when it became
03:03the dream. And they're sending me photos and how happy they are and they're on their
03:08vacations with their kids and even they're in their backyards. They're
03:11sending me selfies in their bathrooms and they're writing me their histories and
03:15their feelings on their body image and that's when I knew that this was more
03:19than a bathing suit. I make curvy beach swimwear. I make honeymoons fabulous. I make
03:26an item of clothing you never thought you could wear. I make happiness. The end goal for
03:31curvy beach would be curvy beach in department stores worldwide, boutiques
03:37all across the United States. Me moving to Miami where I can be inspired every day
03:43but always having an apartment in New York City and continuing the legacy of body
03:48love following your dreams and feeling good about yourself through swimwear.
