What is Modern Lingerie?

Photo by Maëliss Demaison on Unsplash

I just wrapped up my MBA in Design Strategy. One of the things that I learned is that there is an unexpected problem among startups, and even small to medium-sized companies: you don't actually know what you're selling.

Take us for example. We had all of these ideas for revolutionizing the nursing bra. But when it came down to it, at our core, we want to support mothers. All mothers and their choices. We want a bra that works as a pregnancy bra, as a nursing bra, as a pumping bra (for some pumps) and as a not a nursing bra for moms who can't or don't wanna, with no judgments (there's too much of that as is). So how do we define what we're making?

Here's what we came to: We make modern lingerie for mothers.

This makes sense to us, but requires a bit of explanation.

Here's our interpretation of 'modern lingerie,' and there are two sides to it.

1: Comfort is essential

2: It highlights a women's view of sexy (rather than a man's)

Comfort is Queen

Bras have been the bane of womanhood for decades. You can find some of the many bra complaints listed in gif form here if you want a giggle. They're restrictive, irritating, and sometimes, at the end of the day, straight-up painful.

Even before the pandemic when many women stopped wearing bras altogether, we were trending towards less-restrictive undergarments. In fact, we can go back centuries to see this trend unfolding...but that's for a different post.

For years now, women have been moving away from structured (think underwire) bras in favor of something more comfortable. Unwired bras have become more popular, as have bralettes. Bralettes give you the security of having something soft gather your boobs in, as well as a certain boho, confident, sexy feeling, while maintaining your natural shape.

That natural shape thing brings us to part 2.

What is Sexy?

Photo by Dainis Graveris on Unsplash

Victoria's Secret has long been the largest lingerie store in the US, and it was created by founder Roy Raymond as a women's lingerie store targeted at men. In other words, a lingerie fantasy world for men to indulge in and bring home for their women. The catalogs and then opulent runway shows were also targeted at heterosexual men.

Victoria's Secret got so big and so visible and so insistent that it was able to define sexy for the majority of American women.

But Victoria's Secret's time is up. Their unbending (nearly) impossible ideal woman is no longer tolerated. Their stubborn refusal to be inclusive the shapes and colors that make up their customer base has alienated them. Their behind-the-scenes misogyny is coming to light. Most of all, this male fantasy of women's sexuality no longer appeals to the female masses. Sexy is a feeling and not all of us can find it under the wires and scaffolding of a push-up bra.

There is certainly still a place in the world for the vintage orange-squeezer lingerie at the top, just as there's still a place for leather corsets, and, yes, even those push-up bras. Because sexy is personal and nobody gets to dictate it for us.

That's modern lingerie.