After years of paving the way for "midsize" women, a Leeds influencer has brought her inclusive brand to the heart of the city.
Emily Lucy Rajch Timms is a qualified stylist and personal shopper who has over 700,000 Instagram followers and over 119,000 YouTube subscribers. The 33-year-old from Leeds began sharing her expertise online and her own challenges after noticing "women feeling unrepresented by brands by industry standards".
The influencer puts together "flattering outfits for girls with bums and tums" and showcases what it looks like on someone who is her body type - size UK 12 to 16. After launching her own clothing brand named ELR Style, which has over 100,00 followers on Instagram, she has opened a pop up shop in Leeds' luxury shopping spot - Victoria Gate.
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Queues were seen outside of the pop up shop on April 23 during the launch. Emily said it has been a "dream come true" to launch ELR Style's first pop up store in her home city after the brand had seen success online. Actress and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here star Helen Flanagan was seen at the event.
Having spent many years trying to make it as a social media influencer, Emily would edit photos to upload the perfect image, always worried about comments and abuse that her pictures received. However, with the sudden outbreak of the pandemic back in March 2020, Emily decided to leave her job in social media and marketing, and decided to dedicate the majority of her time to her content, creating posts that she wanted to do, "not caring" about what others had to say.
After sharing her style ideas and confidence with other women, she now works with brands such as Primark, New Look, Boohoo and I Saw It First, and is followed by a number of celebrities, including Coronation Street star Kimberley Hart-Simpson, Gogglebox's Ellie Warner, Mrs Hinch, and Charlotte Dawson. Emily has also had over 4.3million likes on her TikTok videos. She also went viral after sharing her wedding in Vegas to her husband Anthony.
Speaking about her message and her brand, Emily said: "When it comes to ELR Style my priority is always for our customers to feel their most confident when wearing any of our products. The stigma of sizing is such a mine field. Fabrics, cuts, stretch, no stretch, it's all very difficult."
The brand's "premium" pieces which can be worn repeatedly and are not the standard UK sizes. Emily shared her followers had said they often feel unconfident when buying an item that has an 'extra large' label in, so she decided to create a new sizing of one to six.
Emily added: "Lots have said buying something called 'extra large' doesn't leave you with that confidence, happy feeling we strive so much for. As I have said so many times, sizing is not a reflection on you. Clothes are made for us, not us made for clothes. Sizing means nothing, it's how it fits and makes you feel when wearing it that is important.
"A size small is now a size one and a size five is an XXL, so subconsciously our attachment to size can change as one to five means nothing to most of us."
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