Jasmin Simons’ new lingerie store, Curve Bermuda, is about more than sexy underwear; it’s about inclusion.

The store services women who wear a range of sizes from small and medium to 5X, depending on the product.

“My customers come in and say they have trouble finding lingerie in their size, constantly,” the 22-year-old said. “I think there is a real need for this in the community.”

When she announced she was opening the store last December, she was shocked by the outpouring of support.

“I never thought a plus size store would be as appreciated and celebrated as it is,” she said. “That was overwhelming. I got a lot of direct messages thanking me for bringing this to the island. That was nice to hear, and it made me feel like I was supposed to be here doing this.”

The store came about at a difficult time in her life.

“I didn’t know where my life was going,” she said.

She’d spent a year taking fashion media courses in New York, but hadn’t liked the city, and returned home. Then her friends Jody and Cathy Place told her they were looking to do something with a small space in their Nakada Electric Bikes store across from Mangrove Bay.

She was full of ideas.

“They were saying they wanted to do something for plus sized women,” she said. “We talked. Then they said it looked like it should be my store.”

She made her first sale at the grand opening of Curve Bermuda on December 9.

“I was very, very nervous,” said Ms Simons, who suffers from social anxiety. “I had no idea what I was doing. It took me a week to calm down and adjust.”

Before opening Curve, her only experience in retail was helping out in an ice-cream store.

In the six months since she opened, she has got the hang of things.

“February was crazy busy because of Valentine’s Day,” she said. “But March was so silent.”

Now she sees a lot of repeat customers.

“I am grateful for that because now I have a relationship with a lot of the customers who come in here,” she said.

Some customers end up shooting the breeze with her for an hour or more. Ms Simons wants Curve to be a place of acceptance. She loves to see a smile break over a customer’s face when they find something that fits and looks good on them.

Curve is located in Somerset Village on the corner of East Shore Road and Somerset Road. The first thing many people ask, when they walk in, is: when are you moving to town?

The answer is no time soon.

“I like the area,” Ms Simons said. “I love the community.”

She lives in Southampton, but her father, Wendell Simons, and grandmother, Petria Butterfield Simons are both from Sandys. She also went to Sandys Middle School for three years.

“People need to understand that they don’t need to be in town to buy something,” she said.

To accommodate, she does deliveries, and holds things in the store until people can get there. She is also open from 11am to 7pm, Tuesday to Saturday in the summer, if people want to stop by in the evening.

Some people have questioned whether Sandys might be too uptight for a lingerie store.

“I don’t think Somerset is any more conservative than anywhere else,” she said.

And being located out of town means she doesn’t have the high rents which often drive prices up.

Her prices range from $10 for underpants and $25 for special Curve Bermuda T-shirts to $30 for lingerie.

So far, she’s loving running the store.

“I get to wake up every day and come here and do something I really enjoy,” she said. “The biggest challenge is always feeling like I am not doing enough. I am constantly critiquing myself. I find it very hard to switch off at the end of the day.”

• For more information see Curve Bermuda on Facebook or on Instagram under @curvebermuda