We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stephanie Vincent & Helene Delince a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stephanie & Helene, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

We are most definitely happier as business owners. Becoming an entrepreneur has always been a shared dream and despite the rollercoaster of small business ownership, it is completely worth it. Recently after celebrating six years as business owners the thought of having “regular jobs” crossed our mind.

Our full-time jobs prior to working for ourselves would have most definitely been sustainable. Financially they would check the boxes for the cost of living in New York. The camaraderie of work peers would’ve easily transitioned into a camaraderie of friends and acquaintances but the quality of life would not have been the same.

Although what we do isn’t a typical 9-5 retail job, we’ve had plenty of those experiences even within the same industry that makes us grateful that we’re kind of on the opposite side of that. The amount of expertise we’ve each built up within our industry in our opinion is now invaluable and would be wasted within a regular job space.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Helene: I started working at a lingerie shop and fell in love with the industry when I was a freshman in college. I started off with doing admin for a small lingerie shop on Madison Ave in NYC and grew into other roles over the course of 20 years with various lingerie companies. I’ve managed, trained, and led visual merchandising and buying teams as well. At The Fitting Curve, we provide a service that we think is a dying art. The art of bra fitting! With our expertise, we provide a positive and empowering shopping experience that can generally be confusing, filled with self-doubt or even traumatic for some people at other lingerie establishments.

Stephanie: I got into the industry at a fairly young age. The owner of a small lingerie shop requested I get working papers at 15 years old so she could train me! I was enrolled in a fashion program in high school and was very interested in garment construction and lingerie. I went on to work with different lingerie companies learning many parts of the business ever since. I am most proud of the lives we change in our fitting rooms. Our clients range from the youngest at 9 years old to also young 95 and we get to begin or expand breast health and body-positive conversations with each and every person that shops with us.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We believe in owning a small business there are many instances in which pivoting is a must! The pandemic is a prime example of having to adjust not just personally but also professionally. New York City being the epicenter of Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic, there were strict lockdown rules, especially concerning retail business operations. We pivoted by adding Virtual Fitting services which have remained a part of our business services since 2020. For our clients, we’ve had to pivot on the different styles and brands we carried especially by vendors overseas who are suffering from production and shipping issues to this day.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Within our market, we believe our reputation has preceded itself and that is largely part of our clients and community. Word of mouth and positive testimonials has been a substantial part of our foundation as a standing brick-and-mortar business with such a niche service. We can talk about our combined 40+ years of expertise in the lingerie industry until we’re blue in the face but it is the experience and the service that our clients receive that really speaks for itself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thefittingcurve.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/thefittingcurve
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thefittingcurve
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thefittingcurve
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-fitting-curve-rockville-centre
• Other: www.instagram.com/_heyimsteph www.instagram.com/helenedelince

Image Credits
Azikiwe Aboagye Photography