Ellen Nimmegeers is such an intriguing lady you want to know more about. With her brand Taille de Femme, she creates fashion for curvy, ‘real’ women. After struggling with finding the right sizes and fits for years, she thought it was about time for the fashion industry to change. And if it would go too slow, why not be the change yourself? That formed the rationale behind Taille de Femme, now successfully run by Nimmegeers. We spoke to this young designer about insecurities, average sizes and what’s wrong with the current fashion industry and media. “Until today I still have the same issues and I believe I’m not the only one.”
Cover photo: © Taille de Femme
Ellen Nimmegeers
Fashion designer and creative director Ellen Nimmegeers was born and raised in Antwerp, Belgium. She always knew she wanted to work in fashion and when Belgium didn’t have styling academies, she soon decided to move to Rotterdam, The Netherlands. “It marked the start of my adventure,” she jokingly adds. As a junior, she started to work for The Cloakroom, as an online stylist. When the company was taken over by a German organization, she soon started at de Bijenkorf, a famous Dutch department store. Since then she hasn’t sit still; the busy lady now works for Bundleboon. A personal styling company for kidswear. “I’ve always had a passion for working with kids.”
Pursuing a career in fashion wasn’t very obvious, since both of her parents didn’t have anything with fashion. Her grandma, on the contrary, loved bright colors and trends. “It could be possible that my grandma is responsible for my love of fashion. But I never looked at it that way. I just love to be creative and to experiment with different colors and combinations.”
Taille de Femme
And that isn’t all. If you’re the type of person who always feels short of time, you have to meet Nimmegeers. A lady who passionately runs a business besides her day-to-day job. And for good reason: Nimmegeers was quite fed up with the current state of the fashion industry. “Taille de Femme was born a year ago after I thought it was about time to change something in our fashion industry. During my puberty, I was one of the first girls that got curves. They were calling it ‘fat’ and bullied me. I had to grab larger sizes, because women with wide hips can’t have a smaller waist? Until today I still have the same issues and I believe I’m not the only one. That is why I want to design clothes that focus on the hips and bosom as opposed to the ‘normal’ confection sizes. For me that contains curvy.”
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Taille de Femme translates to “a woman’s waist” or “female size”. And the latter is what Nimmegeers’ brand is all about. The average woman wears a size 10 to 14, but that isn’t displayed in the media. Therefore, Nimmegeers created Taille de Femme, developing a space for women with curves. When looking at the fashion industry, there’s one thing Nimmegeers would like to be changed: “I would love to make size charts and size labels disappear. Who has decided about the labels medium or large anyway? It creates feelings of uncertainty at many women, for no reason. Women should be proud of their feminine curves. To achieve this, the fashion industry needs to change – and I hope to contribute to this change.” We’re sure she will.
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Also read: Interview – creative Lilay Yuzgulen on finding inspiration in everyday objects
