Business going swimmingly after 10 years

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This article was published 02/01/2023 (722 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Replace fire and brimstone with racks of swimsuits, bright fluorescent lights, crammed change rooms and people everywhere.

There, you might find Cathy Murray’s hell.

“It’s an evil,” Murray said of swimsuit shopping. “You get it done as fast as you can with the limited selection that’s available.”

Leah Dupasquier would put it off.

“Sometimes I feel like, ‘Oh, I’d like to lose a little bit of weight before I go and buy something,’” she said. “Just not wanting to see myself in a bathing suit.”

Jaime Gregorash heard a chorus of women bemoaning their “unique shape,” their knees, their stretch marks, their cellulite, their big busts or butts during her time working at a swimwear retail outlet.

“When I saw that… I’m like, ‘There’s got to be something else that’d work better for women to feel more comfortable,’” Gregorash said.

So, she launched Swimwear Express, where customers book one-on-one or small group appointments. Gregorash has been matching people to bathing suits — sometimes taking a van up to Flin Flon or Dauphin — for 10 years.

“So many women just laugh at me when I (bring up) bikinis. They’re like, ‘Have you seen this body?’” Gregorash said. “I’m like, ‘You have a body, you can wear a bikini. It doesn’t matter.’ But it’s all about comfort.”

Hence why Gregorash stocks 560 Marjorie St. with tankinis, one-pieces and wraps. She designed her six changing rooms to have more space than the ones at Swimwear Etc, the retailer she worked for in the 2000s.

“When you grow up, you’re not like, ‘I want to be in retail,’” Gregorash noted. “But, it’s a pretty good gig.”

She was a manager at Swimwear Etc until the company sold to Swimco in 2011. While there, she fell in love with helping people find bathing suits, she said.

“We’re our own worst critic, so coming out of that fitting room was hard,” Gregorash said. “It doesn’t matter what shape or size you are. You’re comparing yourself to that lady, that lady… everyone has their own issues.”

She figured there was a “hole in the marketplace” and spent the summer of 2012 brainstorming how to sell swimwear differently.

That December, she opened her store and began booking appointments to meet clients. She signed deals with swimwear labels based on previous connections and began “pounding the pavement,” she said.

“We’ve gotten in trouble,” she noted.

She made Swimwear Express postcard-style advertisements and left them on people’s windshields at malls and Costcos — not always allowed. She’d tout her company on social media and at public pools.

Nancy Drad, 61, got a postcard at a Winnipeg craft sale around 10 years ago. Prior to, she’d shop for swimsuits online.

“I just didn’t want to go into a store,” she said, adding nothing seemed to fit.

Drad booked a one-hour appointment at Gregorash’s shop and walked out with a swimsuit, and a lack of awareness of its size.

“There’s nobody else in the store,” Drad said. “You (don’t) feel self-conscious.”

She’s returned several times. Gregorash or her assistant will bring customers swimsuits, never bringing out measuring tape.

“It’s uncanny how they just know (what fits),” Drad said, adding the staff are friendly.

The business has grown largely through word of mouth. Friends arrive together and bring appetizers; they make an appointment an event.

Sometimes, Gregorash loads hockey bags and rolling racks with her wares, booking hotel rooms to set up pop-up shops in places like Regina and northern communities.

Customers don’t pay for appointments, just the products they buy. There’s no pressure to purchase, Gregorash said.

“You can find something you love and want to wear, and if I don’t have it, it’s a learning curve for me of what I could’ve carried,” she said.

Sales hit zero at certain points of the pandemic, Gregorash said. However, summer of 2021 was her busiest ever. This winter looks full, she added.

Both Murray and Dupasquier, who dreaded swimsuit shopping, have perused Swimwear Express recently.

“It just is a wonderful experience,” Murray said.

“I think (Gregorash) kind of helps change the narrative around who should wear a bathing suit,” added Dupasquier. “It doesn’t matter if you lost 20 pounds, or if you look like a model… everyone needs a swimsuit that fits them and looks nice on them.”

Gregorash said her goal is for customers to leave with confidence.

“I want them to want to wear their suit instead of have to wear their bathing suit,” she said.

About one in 10 Canadians suffers poor body image during some point in their lives, according to Marian Goldstone, the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba’s Westman regional outreach manager.

“(It’s) not surprising, when you see the judgment and the pressure that society puts on people to match what they see on TV, to match social media,” Goldstone said.

Pressure to look a certain way also comes internally, once people believe such messaging, Goldstone said. Older women battle ageism and a stress to look young, she added.

“(It’s) so insidious — it just creeps in,” Goldstone said. “It’s OK to be who we are. That message is not getting through; we’re fine the way we are.”

She said she understands why there’s a place where women want to test bathing suits privately, but there shouldn’t be a need.

Gregorash said she’s trying to reshape thinking: instead of judging your legs, be thankful they’re strong and keeping you mobile.

Madison Barteaux, the Mood Disorder Association of Manitoba’s youth co-ordinator for the Westman region, hosts disordered eating and body image workshops for teens and young adults.

“The topic of swimsuits comes up a lot,” Barteaux said.

Bathing suit shopping is intimidating to many, especially when mirrors aren’t inside change rooms, she noted.

“Clothing needs to fit you instead of you fitting into your clothes,” Barteaux said — it’s something she tells her groups.

Swimwear Express celebrated its 10-year anniversary with an open house on Dec. 7.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com