What to know about Emrald swimwear
- Brand purpose: Emrald creates plus-size swimwear designed to represent women without suggesting their bodies need correcting.
- Fit and support: Founder Nadja says the designs pair supportive construction with comfortable fabric for activities such as jet skiing.
- Island influence: The French Caribbean brand draws on Guadeloupe for its approach to representation, sustainability and collection names.
- Signature piece: Reva is Emrald’s emerald-green one-piece swimsuit and the first design Nadja created for the brand.
This profile explores how Emrald, a French Caribbean plus-size swimwear brand, approaches fit, support, fashion and representation. Read Nadja’s account of the brand’s beginnings, its design choices and the women who help shape its collections.
Swimsuit shopping as a curvy woman can mean adjusting straps, checking how a top fits and trying to find a suit that feels comfortable. For Nadja, founder of Emrald, that familiar frustration helped inspire a brand built on the idea that women’s bodies do not need fixing. The plus-size swimwear label aims to create colorful, fashionable designs that consider how women move and feel.
Nadja’s approach goes beyond extending a size range. She wants plus-size women to see themselves in colorful swimwear designed with their bodies and comfort in mind.
Who is sharing Nadja’s story?
I’m Jerri, Assistant Managing Editor at The Curvy Fashionista. My work brings me close to the plus-size fashion market, where I pay attention to whether brands offer meaningful options or rely mainly on inclusive language in their marketing.
I’ve covered Swimwear throughout the year, from the Cherri Cheeks line to profiles of curvy women in our “Becoming Hilda” series. That work has helped me distinguish a brand that simply says “inclusive” from one that considers what a swimsuit needs to do for a fuller bust.
I’m also a woman with a fuller bust, and I’ve had that experience affect vacation shopping. When Nadja discussed support, fabric and her decision to avoid “corrective” language, I was listening both as an editor and as a potential customer.
I wanted to understand what changes when a founder approaches plus-size swimwear with the goal of creating suits women can enjoy wearing, rather than simply extending a size range.
Why did Nadja create Emrald?
Emrald is a French Caribbean swimwear brand, and Nadja says she started it in response to a gap between size-range claims and the women represented in swimwear campaigns. She wanted to build a brand that showed curvy women wearing fashionable designs.
“Some brands would go up to size fifty-two, but at the same time they would show a wonderful size-thirty-six woman,” she said. “That was the first thing that went wrong in my head.”
The issue was personal, too: Nadja had watched her sister navigate the swimwear market as a curvy woman. She wanted to offer a different kind of representation.
“Having a sister who is also a curvy woman, I thought that I would love to actually bring to the table a truly representative brand,” Nadja said. “You could be a size fifty-two or forty-six, or in the US market a size twenty-two or ten, and you could actually see very feminine, very audacious and confident plus-size women.”
Nadja’s sister helped inspire a plus-size swimwear brand focused on showing the women it serves. The founding idea connects representation with the practical experience of finding a swimsuit that feels right.
What does the name Emrald mean?
Emrald takes its name from Nadja’s favorite gemstone, the emerald. She connects the stone with femininity and chose a different spelling for the brand name.
The brand name reflects Nadja’s association between the emerald gemstone and femininity. Emrald is the brand’s chosen spelling.
“My personal favorite gemstone is emerald,” she said. “When I found out that it was also one of the gemstones that represents true femininity, that made sense for me. I just wrote it down another way for SEO, but it is Emrald, and it’s the true representation of femininity.”
How does Emrald avoid corrective body language?
Emrald’s brand philosophy centers on women feeling comfortable as they are, rather than using swimwear to suggest they should look thinner or change their shape. Nadja describes the goal as celebrating femininity and self-acceptance.
Emrald’s central message is that women do not need to change their bodies to wear a swimsuit.
“Some plus-size brands would talk more about correction,” she said. “They would use 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 shapes how Emrald talks about plus-size swimwear. Instead of emphasizing minimizing, smoothing or shaping, Nadja says the brand wants women to enjoy wearing a swimsuit without feeling they need to change first.
Nadja connects that outlook 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 said. “It’s quite natural for Caribbean people to just show what you have.”
Nadja summed up the idea this way: “We turned out to be a plus-size woman or a curvy woman, but most important, a woman.”
How does Emrald approach fabric, fit and support?
Nadja did not come to Emrald with a traditional design background. She says she listened, researched and worked with professional stylists to understand what women wanted from the swimwear market.
“Basically three things came out again and again,” she said. “It’s not very fashionable, not really stylish, and sometimes when it is stylish it’s not very colorful. It would be the same purple, blue or black.”
In response, Emrald sourced Econyl, an Italian stretch fabric that Nadja describes as sustainable, and designed for support without turning swimsuits into uncomfortable corsets.
Emrald’s stated design priorities are fabric, comfort and support that stays relevant during movement.
“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.”
The jet ski example highlights how bust support matters during activity, not only when someone is resting on a beach towel. Nadja shared the story of a customer with a larger bust who bought every top from the first collection for cruises and jet skiing.
“It was quite difficult for her to find tops that would fit her larger bust,” 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 a jet ski, everything will always be perfect for her.”
For someone who has had a swimsuit top shift during a wave, that customer’s search for secure swimwear support feels familiar.
How does Guadeloupe influence Emrald’s sustainability approach?
Guadeloupe influences Nadja’s thinking about sustainability, in part because she sees island communities as especially exposed to climate change. She says using recycled, high-quality fabric aligns with her values.
Nadja links Emrald’s sustainability choices to her experience of island life and the risks associated with hurricanes.
“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.”
Nadja also says Emrald values longevity over short-lived trend cycles. Her aim is to create swimsuits customers want to wear for years.
“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 does quality and premium mean to Nadja?
Nadja says customers, rather than a brand’s own claims, determine whether a product delivers premium quality. She connects the price of a product with the fabrics and work involved in making it.
For Emrald, premium quality means that customers can understand the cost of the fabric and the work behind a swimsuit.
“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.”
She also associates premium swimwear with patience and slow fashion, including time to find the right fit, support and fabric.
What is Reva, Emrald’s first swimsuit?
Reva is Emrald’s first design: an emerald-green one-piece swimsuit. Nadja describes the piece as timeless, elegant and classic.
Reva is the first swimsuit Nadja designed for Emrald and the starting point for the brand’s first collection.
“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. Whoever would buy it would be absolutely surprised, because it doesn’t look that great until you put it on and see for yourself that it’s a great product.”
Nadja began the first Emrald collection with a focused selection rather than launching every idea at once. She wanted the brand to have room to develop.
When the first swimsuit reached a customer, Nadja’s happiness came from imagining how that customer would use it in her life.
“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.”
How is Emrald’s second collection changing?
Nadja says the second collection builds on the first with more color, texture and fashion. It also expands beyond swimsuits to include beachwear.
The second collection adds bolder design choices while continuing Emrald’s focus on timeless style.
“The second one is more like, welcome, truly welcome to Emrald,” she said. “It’s more audacious. We made bolder choices. More color, more texture. It’s even more fashion than the first collection.”
Nadja sees each collection as a chapter in the brand’s story. The next one adds beachwear to the mix and brings plus-size fashion together with curvy representation.
“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.”
Each piece is named after a Guadeloupe beach or landmark. Nadja recommends the Saline, a burgundy two-piece named after one of the island’s beaches, to customers exploring the brand beyond Reva.
Nadja said customers have responded positively to Saline and described burgundy as a color that works across different women.
What happened when Emrald showed at a swimwear event?
At Emrald’s first swimwear show in Guadeloupe, Nadja says the brand was the only plus-size label in the room. The event brought curvy models and colorful designs into the show.
Nadja described the show as an opportunity to bring curvy women, confident women and colorful fashion together in the same space.
“We were the first to bring into the same room curvy women, confident women, smiling women wearing very great and colorful fashion pieces.”
Nadja said audience members expressed relief at seeing colorful, fashionable options created with them in mind.
“Every woman would say thank you, or in French, ‘at last,’ which means what a relief,” Nadja said. “Finally we have something for us. Finally we have something colorful. Finally we have something fashionable.”
The show also led to Emrald’s first local retail partnership, with a boutique in Guadeloupe. Nadja said the opportunity was unplanned but that she decided to pursue it.
“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.”
How do customers wear Emrald beyond the beach?
Some Emrald customers style the swimsuits outside the water, wearing one-pieces as bodysuits and tops as crop tops with high-waisted jeans. Nadja says customers’ styling gave her ideas for future designs.
Customer styling has shown Nadja additional ways Emrald swimwear can be worn beyond the beach.
“I didn’t plan to actually design a bodysuit,” Nadja said, laughing. “But it turned out to be like that, and they did it perfectly well, and it gave me even more ideas for the future.”
Nadja learned about these styling ideas through social media, where customers tagged the brand. Rather than dismissing the trend, she says she is using customer feedback to inform future collections.
“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.”
What does Nadja tell curvy women who are unsure about a two-piece?
Nadja’s message to curvy women unsure about wearing a two-piece swimsuit is that size and skin tone should not dictate what they can wear. She says women should choose what they want to wear.
Nadja’s advice is to choose swimwear based on personal preference, not restrictions based on body size.
“I would answer with our tagline, which in English is ‘born to shine,’” she said. “No matter your size, no matter your shade of color, you can wear whatever you want.”
Nadja says she does not believe a woman should be told she cannot wear something because of her body. She has seen women across Guadeloupe and the Caribbean wear what they choose.
Her final advice is to be yourself and choose what feels right for you.
What legacy does Nadja want Emrald to build?
Swimwear is the first part of Nadja’s vision for Emrald. She wants the brand to become known for timeless design, quality and genuine inclusivity.
Nadja describes Emrald’s legacy as a brand built around lasting style, quality and meaningful representation.
“I feel like I could bring so much to 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.”
For now, Emrald is focused on plus-size women before expanding to other audiences. Nadja says she wants the brand to serve each audience properly before moving on.
“I prefer to step out one step after another, to make sure that we deliver to 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.”
Where can you explore Emrald swimwear?
Emrald is a brand to explore if you are looking for plus-size swimwear that Nadja describes as fashionable, supportive and representative. The brand’s story is rooted in her experiences, her community and customer feedback.
Emrald’s stated purpose is to make swimwear women can enjoy wearing without seeking permission to choose what feels good.
Explore Emrald’s collection at Emrald’s official website.
What makes Emrald different from a standard size extension?
Emrald aims to combine visible representation with design considerations such as fit, fabric and bust support. Nadja says the brand’s approach is about more than extending a size range.
Emrald’s stated distinction is its focus on representation and supportive design alongside size availability.
What fabric does Emrald use?
Nadja says Emrald uses Econyl, an Italian stretch fabric she describes as sustainable. She also says the brand uses recycled, high-quality fabrics.
Nadja identifies Econyl as one of the fabrics used in Emrald swimwear.
Can Emrald swimsuits be worn as everyday clothing?
Some customers wear Emrald one-pieces as bodysuits and style the tops with high-waisted jeans. Nadja says customers shared these outfit ideas by tagging the brand on social media.
Customer-shared styling shows that some Emrald pieces are worn beyond the beach.
What is Emrald’s Reva swimsuit?
Reva is Emrald’s first design, an emerald-green one-piece swimsuit that Nadja describes as timeless, elegant and classic.
Reva is the first swimsuit Nadja created for Emrald.
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