Maternity Wear, Lingerie and Suiting Emerge for LGBTQ, Trans Community

Feeling comfortable in one’s own skin is hard enough. Feeling comfortable in one’s clothing should be relatively easy, by comparison.

But for members of the LGBTQ community who don’t identify with common notions of gender or appearance, what to wear can be a daily frustration. Fortunately, a new wave of fashion start-ups have recently launched to address — and dress — this oft-neglected segment of the population.

“There are specific concerns for us to consider when it comes to the trans and genderqueer communities, where underthings often explicitly tie in to gender expression,” said Jeanna Kadlec, owner of Bluestockings Boutique, an online undergarment retailer in Boston that services an LGBTQ audience. “What would be called women’s underwear is, traditionally speaking, very feminine.”

The owner told ABC News that the shop tries to present a more inclusive selection than other stores. It also seeks to boost other LGBTQ-focused businesses.

The nine-day-old Bluestockings Boutique supports queer-owned and -designed brands such as Play Out and FYI by Dani Read.

“Nubian Skin has been a huge hit,” added Kadlec. “And I’m personally excited to stock independent designers like Karolina Laskowska, On the Inside and Origami Custom.”

“Where we come in as a queer boutique isn’t in saying that lacy underwear isn’t queer or that sporty underwear is, but rather is in giving a person both options and saying, ‘You do you!’” said Kadlec. “Limited choices only reinscribe dominant forces in our society, such as traditional gender norms, heteronormativity, sizeist beauty ideals and so on.”

The same thinking applies at Sharpe Suiting, a year-old Los Angeles atelier for bespoke suits where no assumptions are made about gender or identity before measurements begin for custom dresswear.

“Most of the concerns we received during Sharpe’s crowd-funding campaign were actually rooted from our community’s past negative experience in, No. 1, trying to find clothes that fit them properly and, No. 2, the service they received while attempting to find a suit option that did fit,” said Leon Wu, founder and CEO of Sharpe Suiting, who has also performed off and on for the last 15 years as a drag king (female-bodied, dressing as male) dubbed Trey Sharpe.

Using Andropometrics, a trademarked system for measuring a person based on their gender identity, Sharpe Suiting creates suits with the exact fit, shape or silhouette his customers desire by “straightening unwanted, or adding wanted, angles and curves.”

Fueled by the success of its bespoke pieces, the company is currently preparing to launch a ready-to-wear line in June using a new sizing chart that it feels will better serve its customer base.

“Sharpe Suiting markets our clothing as ‘a-gender’ or ‘gender-neutral.’” said Wu. “We pride ourselves in being able to dress those butch and masculine-of-center-identified in a way most companies can’t, or won’t.”

But Wu was quick to note that he doesn’t discriminate against customers who don’t fit those descriptions, either.

“When gay men, queens, femmes and fashion-forward straight men showed up wanting high-quality clothing that expressed their identities, who were we to say they didn’t fit within our scope?” he said. “Fashion often is based on a concept of exclusivity. We want to change that by being a company that is always inclusive.”

One of the more challenging times for a woman to find flattering clothing can be during pregnancy, and soon an LGBTQ-aimed startup will bring broadened options to that market as well.

Butchbaby Co, a new line of “alternity wear for pregnant masculine, transgender, and queer individuals” and the brainchild of 20-year-old entrepreneur Vanessa Newman, is currently incubating in Washington, D.C.

“The vision of Butchbaby Co. is to create a world where pregnant individuals’ identities don’t have to change just because one’s body does,” reads the company’s vision statement on its website. “Alternity wear is the alternative to the hyperfeminine, heteronormative, eurocentric maternity wear that only exists today.”

The eight-piece lifestyle collection includes a nursing t-shirt, Oxford button-up, jeans, pullover sweater, zip-up hoodie, sweatpants, boxer briefs and nursing sports bra. All pieces are created through collaboration between Newman and Michelle Janayea, chief design officer for Butchbaby.

Butchbaby Co. did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment but is preparing to launch in late fall/early winter 2015.

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Easton native seeks support for lingerie thesis in New York City

For Kathryn Rambo, clothes are an extension of who you are.

Through her research as a senior at Parsons The New School for Design, the Easton Area High School graduate has come to understand that people choose clothes to demonstrate who they are on the inside.

That’s the philosophy behind the lingerie line she’s developing as part of her thesis. Her research explores tattoo art and body modification and reveals “how people change their outer flesh to reflect their inner selves.”

For her, lingerie is “something that you want to feel comfortable in that accentuates your body and who you are.”

The 22-year-old is in elite company as only 40 freshmen are accepted into the dual BFA/BA program each year. She’ll wrap up in May with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and next year will earn a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

But she needs help.

She is raising funds on gofundme.com to buy the materials and supplies she needs to make the garment.

Rambo’s education in merging art with business began when she was a girl.

Her mother, Alicia Rambo Wozniak, owns Easton Yoga. Her late grandfather, Robin Porter, owned Connexions Gallery in Easton. Her grandmother, Pat Porter, owned a vintage clothing store called The Cat’s Pajamas for three years in Downtown Easton.

“I think a lot of people think art is a hobby,” she said. “It was really great to grow up in an environment where they were living successful lives. It was really inspiring to me.”

When The Cat’s Pajamas closed, Pat Porter gave the left-over vintage garments to Rambo.

Rambo’s grandmother was her first fashion influence, she said. She grew up playing dress-up in 1940s and 1950s gowns, gloves and costume jewelry. She owns 1880s hats and parasols, which sparked her interest in how clothes are made.

Rambo learned how to sew couture clothing and make patterns from scratch at the Arts Fashion Institute in Riegelsville in 2011 under Pamela Ptak, a contestant on Project Runway. Rambo took art classes from Parsons graduate Maria Kastrinkos who ran Project Blue in Downtown Easton.

“These influences have given me an edge over my peers … to be able to make this clothing,” Rambo said.

Rambo interacted with models at Parsons this year and with customers through her internship at La Perla. She saw seemingly modest customers buy expensive pieces of lingerie, she said. She realized that customers have different needs, and the fashion designer’s role is to fulfill all those needs.

“It’s not a choice that you necessarily want to show to the world,” she said. “It can empower you if you know you’re wearing something beautiful under your clothes … (it’s) secret empowerment.”

For Rambo, fashion design and psychology go hand in hand.

“Fashion is such a choice that people make and it’s really cool to study the psychological reasons why people choose clothes,” Rambo said. “I think it will give me a marketing edge … to be able to make educated decisions about why I’m designing something.”

After Rambo graduates, she hopes to secure a lingerie design position in New York, London or Paris at a luxury brand. Eventually she wants to open her own business and stay true to her family’s legacy.

“(My family) has given me an edge in New York,” she said. “I know what it takes to run your own business.”

LEARN MORE

For more information, visit kathrynrambo.com.

To donate to Kathryn Rambo’s lingerie project, visit gofundme.com/kathrynrambothesis.

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