Founder's Story

Hello beautiful Queens, it's Alexandra here, thank you for stopping by, I appreciate you so much! Don't you just love shopping?
I absolutely love shopping and have probably shopped in pretty much all the retail stores out there in my quest to find stylish clothes to flatter my curves and to always be unique, however I have had my struggles which are two-fold.
Firstly, for decades I have felt self conscious of my body, my curves and especially hated showing my arms because I felt they were just too big. I also started getting stretch marks on various parts of my body from my teenage years which affected my body confidence.
Even from a very young age around puberty, I noticed that I was more curvy than my friends and I was often criticised by family and friends for being too fat and this continued being the case till my thirties. I even remember a remark made by one of my friends, she said "anytime I am around you, you make me feel skinny"(she was a UK size 14).
I also went through a phase for many years where I wore black a lot thinking it would make me look less curvy and more confident, how wrong was I?
Secondly I struggled with finding unique, stylish clothing in my size, clothing that made me feel proud to have curves.
About 12 years ago in 2008, I decided that enough was enough, I needed to embrace my curves and wear what I liked, inject more colour and more styles into my wardrobe in order to have a unique style. I think I went a bit overboard with the online shopping as I was receiving parcels almost on a weekly basis.
I began to have the desire to create my own clothing brand that not only inspired and empowered women to embrace their curves, but also to encourage them to have a unique style and to feel confident in their own skin!
About 4 years later in 2013, shortly after I was voluntarily made redundant from my then Human Resources position (Following gaining a Master's degree in Human Resources in 2001, I had a Human Resources career for about 17yrs until I quit in 2019) my desire to inspire other curvy women grew stronger.
Helping and empowering women to feel confident with their bodies, to look unique and to dress stylishly is something that I had always felt strongly about (it must be the LIONESS in me, I'm a Leo and I named the debut dress LIONESS) but
I never realised that my desire would actualise into launching JOSHSHE.
 I decided that it was time to embark on this journey of creating a brand that resonated with women with curves.
I firstly decided that I wanted to be a stylist to curvy women so I created my business cards hoping to distribute it around in the hope of helping other women with their style struggles. Secondly I created a group for women with curves, I called it Be inspired to inspire: Big, Curvy, Plus-size and Beautiful" .
I wanted to give women with curves an opportunity to meet other curvy Queens at least once a Month to attend empowering events, go shopping together or simply to catch up over lunch or dinner. The group continued for a few years with a membership of more than 50 curvy Queens but due to dwindling interest, the group disbanded in 2016.
The stylist vocation did not work out either and instead I concentrated more on furthering my Human Resources career. Hopefully soon I will one day assume that role as a stylist. I guess in some way though JOSHSHE is a stylist to women with curves...
3 years later in May 2019 and 11 Months after I had my beautiful son, I decided not to return to my Human Resources career, it was time to stop procrastinating and to make a difference, to create a clothing brand for women with curves and to also provide a supportive environment that will make women feel empowered and confident in their own skin!
Becoming a Mother sealed everything because I especially understood how hormones and a changed body could affect a woman's confidence, but my desire is to change that narrative and inspire Mothers and all women with curves to feel empowered and body confident. I named the brand JOSHSHE which is an amalgamation of my son's name Joshua and SHE because this is a brand by a woman for women!