Influencer Sinead of ‘Curvy Style’ fame launches new line of swimwear for women of all shapes and sizes

The 36-year-old Limerick native, better know by her online moniker, Sinead’s Curvy Style, is just days away from giving birth at the time of print, but not before she launches her all-new swimwear line.

“I am getting induced in five days,” laughs the popular plus model who recently launched her latest range, Vacious Swim by Sinead O’Brien.

“I am still working and running around but I am at the stage now where I am ready to get this baby out of me,” adds the charismatic influencer who welcomed a darling baby boy/girl into the world alongside her partner, Simon, last Sunday.

“They asked me did I have a birthing plan in the hospital, and I was like ‘er, no,’ just get the baby here safely. Ignorance really is bliss.”

The doting first-time mum may be taking to motherhood like a dream but she admits it wasn’t a role she always envisioned playing.

“I love kids and my nieces and nephews, but I was always very career driven until I wasn’t and then I settled and said, ‘okay, now is the time.’

“I wasn’t the broodiest of people and that is being completely honest with you but I think something comes over you.

“I am not getting any younger I am 36 so this is the right time for me, they need a sibling, don’t they? But I won’t be rushing into anything.

“Right now we are not over-thinking it we don’t know what is ahead of us but we are so excited, we are together six years and this is the best thing that has ever happened to us. Myself and Simon have been so lucky that it happened for us.”

Her blooming baby bump has meant that the social media star who started her popular lifestyle and fashion blog in 2013 has been the perfect canvass for her inclusive line of swimwear.

“I have loved being pregnant and I have loved the bump, I really am going to miss it.

“Seeing how my body changed has just been amazing. I’m so proud of it, and I’ve never felt better rocking a swimsuit.”

Launching the brand in October 2021, Sinead first released a shapewear collection that ranged from a size 8 - 28 which was met with instant applause.

“It has been a rollercoaster but really it has been years in the making. Trying to find the right product that was true to me was what really took time.

“I had women coming to my house to try on the shapewear; friends, family and followers, getting the all-inclusive sizing was the most important thing.”

Striving to ensure women were comfortable in their skin, regardless of their shape or size, the new mum who has amassed a 100k following on social media has now created a beach-ready range for every body.

“I wanted to do something that was full coverage but makes you feel sexy, whether you’re a mother running after the kids on the beach or lounging in sunny Spain or surfing on the Wild Atlantic Way.”

Enlisting real women along with models to wear her designs, the model was adamant to have a filter-free campaign.

“When I was modelling in the past I used to think my legs don’t look like that after a picture came out because they used to change things around. Times have changed, we want to see the lumps and bumps and you don’t want everything to look perfect.

“We shot in Ireland and I said, ‘I don’t have the money to go off to Marbella to shoot this.’ I was just praying it wouldn’t rain, my mother had the statue of Prague out before the shoot.”

The real impetus behind the brand came from Sinead’s own experience with her own body and fashion inclusivity.

“I was approached to model and I was always told, ‘you have such a lovely face,’ but what about the rest of me?

“I was 22 when I first started modelling and a size 18 - one of the rare few plus-sized models in Ireland. None of the shops would bring clothes to dress me for catwalk shows, bar clothing shops for older women so I was always left in the corner, which is why I wanted to create my own brand so nobody would feel left out again.

“I always say you are not born with confidence it is something you have to work on. I remember going shopping with my mam when I was younger and I would come home in tears because there was nothing that would fit me.

“I know from going to the high street it is very hard to get anything over a size 20 that is beautiful and sexy. There are not enough brands doing what we are doing.

“If you have an event and the money to spend it is really frustrating and upsetting, everyone deserves to be able to buy their size.

“We don’t have a plus-size range, everyone is under the same umbrella. Whether you’re a size 8 or 28 there the same styles. I modelled as a plus size model but I didn’t want to categorise anyone as plus-size on my website. These are the sizes and let’s leave it at that.”

Despite her girl boss attitude, the entrepreneur has said her new business venture has come with a steep learning curve.

“I am learning every day. I am a team of one alongside my sister and it is an education; logistics, shipping, designing and manufacturing.

“If you think it looks easy, it’s not, but I knew I could do shapewear because I have been wearing it all my life and then the swimsuit line was a natural progression. There were so many prototypes that didn’t make it but we got there eventually.

“Instagram has been a really supportive place for me, I don’t have any time for negative energy gone are the days that I would even respond to a troll. The good always outweighs the bad online.”

SWIMWEAR: Vacious Swim by Sinead O’Brien

PHOTOGRAPHY: @arkyencreative arkyen.com