Retail Therapy

National Post:

Necessity is the mother of invention, and that’s how Gina Tersigni’s Principessa line of jeans “for real women” was born in Woodbridge in 2003. The curvy, stay-at-home mom simply couldn’t find jeans to suit her busy lifestyle, taste and changing body. What started as Just Gina Designs and a small line of denim has since become Principessa, a complete collection of tops, trousers, denim, jackets and skirts.

As a teen and young adult, Tersigni often designed and sketched her own outfits and had them made. “While I was at home with my kids, I had kept up my interest in fashion, and I had a lot of retail background and a degree in business.” She took a few additional night courses, and her husband and two boys, now 14 and 17, encouraged her to take the plunge.

“Real women have curves,” the designer laughs, but all she found in the marketplace at a reasonable price was denim that was “too low-cut or snug or else the opposite– the butt is too big, too high, like mom-jeans. So, I emphasized comfort; everything is a stretch fabric, and on the jeans, no pockets, so you don’t see any lumps.

“I design for myself, and women like myself — women having children, going through body changes,” says the 45-year-old Tersigni. “We want jeans that looked good, but don’t want to wear the tiny little jeans. I know what women my age are looking for. It’s different, and it’s true what they say, that 40 is the new 30.”