Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss

“Honestly, in the beginning what I imagined was driving around the country with my samples and showing them to the stores that I thought I should be in. Road tripping that is really what I wanted to do. Then I was like, 'Damn it. I have to work every day.' I don't like this, but I got used to it.”

“Summer is the perfect time to go for bursts of color, like a big beaded necklace.”

“When I first saw my line in stores, that's when it really hit me that there was a consumer on the other end of it all, and they were going to have to spend their own money on it. So there was that initial panic. I remember thinking, what if nobody buys it?”

“I was incredibly voluptuous, and it was frustrating as a young woman to not find things that fit well and made me feel celebratory of my body.”

“The girl in the room, no matter her shape or size, that is laughing, having fun and enjoying life is the one you want to be around.”

“I used to say that stores were like museums. I appreciated it, I could look at it, but it really wasn't for me and I couldn't have it.”

“If you pay attention to everything and everyone, you can keep your finger on the pulse and know what's going on. Then you can pull back when you need to or go forward in a certain way.”

“For swimsuits, a halter top with thick straps works wonders. It supports bigger busts, and the ruching gives fullness if you're smaller.”

“The worst thing you can do is find your flaw and continually highlight it.”

“When I graduated from UCLA, I actually started interviewing for banking jobs. But at some point I realized a career in banking felt more like a continuation of school than a passion.”

“Most important, I am the mother of three delicious angels, and if for no one else, I will not let them watch anyone try to take me down or take away from what I have achieved.”

“Get your body as ready as you can when you are looking for swimsuits to feel good about yourself because it's so awful looking and shopping for bathing suits.”

“I work very hard; I have every day since I started my business, even when I was on bed rest during pregnancies, even when I was dealing with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

“You have to find what you love about yourself, focus on it and show that to people as much as you can.”

“My life is about the line, my daughter and my husband.”

“I wear a comfy low wedge sandal to run around the city.”

“To presume that my greatest achievement is that I dated someone famous twenty years ago is completely sexist and anti-woman. It's lazy, nasty journalism that makes me sad about our world.”

“In Manhattan, my go-to bag is a black L.L.Bean tote it never looks dirty!”

“My whole life, starting as a young teen, I was a hard fit for clothes.”

“Growing up, I had trouble finding clothes because I was curvy, and so I would end up designing my own things.”