Frisco woman’s lingerie line finds its way to Macy’s, JC Penney

A mother of two boys, Psychelia Terry saw a gap in the lingerie market for curvy women like herself whose body changed after having kids.

So Terry took a leap and launched Urban Intimates in 2009.

Today Urban Intimates’ bras, underwear and sexy baby doll lingerie are sold at Macy’s and J.C. Penney.

Establishing a brand and getting your product into major stores is a daunting task, especially for a first-time entrepreneur.

Terry, 32, didn’t have any experience as a designer. What she lacked in retail experience, she made up with business acumen, persistence and people who believed in her vision.

“Psyche had a passion for it,” said Maya Brown, marketing director at cosmetics brand Black Opal who has been Terry’s mentor for nearly a decade. “Anytime you have a passion for something, it could overwhelm a lack of experience.”

Either she was going to succeed or fail trying, Terry said.

“I have to make it and make this happen,” she said. “There’s no turning back.”

Terry’s journey began in Nevada, where she was an MBA student at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. She submitted her idea for a lingerie line in a business plan competition, and while she did not win, it garnered enough positive feedback for her to continue.

In 2010, Terry moved to Frisco with her husband, Vantoba Terry, whose job transferred the family.

From her home office, she made more prototypes of bras and sewed them herself. Without a design background, she hired contractors to help with the process.

She sent press kits to fashion and lifestyle magazines. Soon she got noticed by Essence and Ebony.

A big break came when Terry was accepted into the competitive Macy’s Workshop program, which selects up-and-coming minority- and women-owned businesses that could be potential vendors for the department store.

At that point, “I had a bra sample and a magazine feature,” she said.

The five-day, boot camp-style program provided Terry access and networking opportunities with Macy’s top executives. She also got a glimpse into how to do business with the retailer.

Still, graduating from Macy’s program in 2011 offered no guarantee that the retailer would do business with Urban Intimates.

In fact, of the 60 businesses that participated in the program, only five are now Macy’s vendors, said spokesman Orlando Veras.

It took another year for Urban Intimates to secure an order from Macy’s, which asked Terry for redesigns.

During that time, Terry scrambled to get her logistics and manufacturing system in place. She traveled to China to find a factory that would make samples and produce her line.

“We went to China and went door-knocking,” said Terry, who used Google for translation.

She also reached out to old colleagues at Whirlpool, where Terry worked for 12 years, as well as mentors to learn more about managing back-end logistics and working with factories overseas.

Last year, Terry got her first order from Macy’s.

Now Urban Intimates is carried in 10 Macy’s stores in the Southwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. In Texas, the brand is available at the Macy’s store in the Houston suburb of Pearland. Bras sell for about $36.

“The assortment of lingerie is novel, fun and comes in bold colors,” Veras said. “It’s a really great product in the plus-size category.”

Sales of women’s intimate apparel were flat at $10.8 billion during the 12 months ending in February, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to market research firm NPD Group.

Within that category, though, sales of plus-size intimates rose 3.5 percent to $2.8 billion.

All the while, Terry looked at wholesale opportunities with other major retailers. She visited J.C. Penney’s offices unannounced, describing her efforts as “trying to get in the door.”

Eventually, Terry snagged a meeting with an online buyer, who expressed interest in carrying Urban Intimates.

The retailer’s e-commerce site began selling the line last April.

Miracle Harper, a former J.C. Penney online buyer for intimate apparel, said Urban Intimates filled a void in the lingerie market for full-figured women.

What’s more, “it’s cute and fun,” said Harper, who attended an Urban Intimates party last year to celebrate the line’s launch.

Terry and her husband invested about $160,000 from personal savings, 401(k) and credit cards.

Urban Intimates rung up about $250,000 in sales last year and expects to double its revenue this year. By 2015, Terry hopes to hit $1 million in sales.

Terry credits the buyers from the two retailers for being patient, holding her hand and believing in Urban Intimates.

Terry said she has also worked hard to foster a relationship with her customers.

She has attended launch events for her brand at various Macy’s stores. She describes her customers as women who want to feel sexy and good about their curves.

“It was so important to get in front of customers and say, ‘This is who we are, and this is why you should buy us,’” she said.

Recently, Urban Intimates’ skin care line, called Urban Hydration, has seen sales pick up dramatically, Terry said. The body butter and scrub are sold online and at stores such as Target and Ulta.

“We’ve really come a long way. We’ve had such a huge trajectory,” she said.

AT A GLANCE: Business tips

Psychelia Terry’s tips for getting your products into retail shelves:

- Find a need in the market.

- Get sustainable data that back up this need.

- Decide how you can creatively fill the need.

- Prove to retailers you are the only and best person to fill the need.

Follow Hanah Cho on Twitter at @hanahcho.

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Survey says lefties do it better

You may not want us operating a chainsaw, or even a butter knife, but a new study shows we lefties are handy in the bedroom.

A study conducted by Lelo, a global company that sells lingerie and the kind of toys you will NOT find at FAO Schwarz, recently found that 86 percent of left-handed people report being “extremely satisfied” with their sex lives. We remain, however, extremely dissatisfied with the world’s dearth of left-handed scissors.

As my nine loyal readers know, I have detailed lefties’ plight before. My people have been whacked on the knuckles by intolerant, ruler-wielding Catholic school nuns. We’ve searched in vain for left-handed golf clubs and guns. And we spent our college careers sitting one-cheeked while writing exams from lecture hall seats with desks placed on the right side.

Right is right and left is wrong, we are taught from the first time the Little League coaches try to switch us to the other side of the plate. Until now. Suddenly, the left is in the right. Lelo’s sex survey showed only 15 percent of right-handers report extreme satisfaction. Righties are getting left out of the fun.

Nobody’s saying Lelo is the New England Journal of Medicine. We’re talking about a company that sells suede whips and his-and-hers handcuffs. Also, the timing is highly suspicious. The news flash reporting that righties are frustrated in bed just happened to coincide with Lelo rolling out a new device designed to help righties feel the sensations that leave lefties feeling groovy. Shaped like a stress ball — an appropriate choice for a pent-up target audience – it’s held in the left hand and, when squeezed, sends vibrations up the arm, stimulating the right side of the brain. We right-brainers are known for excelling in the arts – we brought you Leonardo da Vinci, Jimi Hendrix and Mozart – but now the secret is out about our other set of skills.

A whopping 10,000 people took the survey, with 71 percent more lefties saying they leave the house in the morning whistling a happy tune. Meanwhile, righties grind their teeth to the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

Lelo’s survey results beg a question – and judging from some of the company’s signature line of blindfolds and silk restraining ties, these people know something about begging – why are lefties so good at what they do? Perhaps it’s because we have to find creative ways to live in world dominated by righties: Just try operating a can opener left-handed. Or a chain saw. But be sure to notify your next of kin first.

The survey results bring welcome news to a long-oppressed minority group. Victims of a vast right-wing conspiracy, we have been persecuted for eons. In primitive societies it was considered evil to be left-handed, and babies’ left hands were tied down to ensure right-handedness. In ancient times military leaders forced soldiers to put their swords and spears in their right hands so that their shields would interlock. This forced left-handed men to fight right-handed, and inordinate numbers of lefties were killed. In ancient Japan, if the bride was found to be left-handed, it was grounds for divorce.

Even our language discriminates against lefties. We speak of a “left-handed compliment” as one that is less than gracious. A bad dancer has “two left feet.” Unwanted food is “leftovers.”

Meanwhile, the language glorifies righties. When things are going well, all is “right” with the world. Our nation is governed by a Bill of Rights. Ladies look for “Mr. Right.”

Or at least they did, until this survey came out. Perhaps now women looking for happiness will start looking for Mr. Left.

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