On our Holiday Wish List: $12.00 Designer Lingerie You Can Feel Good About

This is the article where I divulge far too much about the secret life of my lingerie drawer.

This saga, I do believe, begins before my birth. My mother is a true California water baby who loves her Birkenstocks and 501′s and I’m not entirely sure embraced the idea of bras until after after (college? her 20s? last Christmas? two weeks ago?)…well, I’m not entirely sure she has ever entirely embraced the idea, but I digress. I grew up a sworn and solemn believer in functional undergarments. As in…the skin colored kind that works well on and off the soccer field. In college, I graduated to brightly colored thongs.

I bought about one $15.00 pack of those babies annually, and stopped worrying about my underwear drawer for good.

That is, until last year – when a champagne induced lapse in judgment sent me deep into drawers of lacy thongs and boy shorts at a Who What Wear Gap event at the Grove.

On that note, what are you even supposed to call it these days? Lingerie? Panties? Undies? Intimates?

Someone help.

An elderly waiter in a tux fed me lemon drops and champagne glasses while I revitalized my drawer, and tried not to turn red, or make eye contact…which got much, much easier after lemon drop #3.

A hangover later, I realized that I, perhaps, should be a little more conscious about my lingerie choices.

Where were they made? What were they made out of? And, who did they positively or negatively affect?

I moved to New York City eight months ago, and, with the world at my fingertips, began slowly looking for a sustainable solution to my lingerie shortage (panic disorder? phobia?).

Thanks to more than a few twitter searches and some failed shopping excursions, I discovered Ditsies – the $12.00 monthly solution for luxury undies, without the middleman…or the labor/environmental harm…and, seemingly just for panic stricken girls like me.

Not to mention, 10% of your goes to the women’s empowerment cause of your choosing.

I sought out a good underpants education from Jacquie, who co-launched Ditsies with her friend Miki this year after months of working out of cramped NYC apartments and crowded coffee shops. Here’s my Q and A with one of New York’s up and coming undies queens:

How did Ditsies get started?

I guess it started with poor impulse control. Like a lot of women, I couldn’t resist checking out a big panty sale on of my favorite retailers was having, even though I was en route to have coffee with my childhood friend, Miki. And he couldn’t help laughing at me showing up late, and frazzled, and describing having to go hoarder prison rules for nice undies at a decent price. So we spent lunch discussing what would make the experience a lot better. Getting a new cute undies each month that fit within general style parameters, like what style (thong/boyshort/bikini) and what color groups (classics, brights). Avoiding the awkwardness. Getting a great, high quality designer product. Paying it forward in some way. Keeping the price reasonable.

That lunch snowballed into a business idea, and then a prototype, and now Ditsies.

What is your mission?

At Ditsies, we want you to feel great about your undies. Like jumping up and down on a couch great. That means delivering quality products – all made in NYC – and an excellent customer experience. No awkwardness. No retail stores. No middlemen. Just great delicates, delivered. And we’re about women helping women. So you can treat yourself each month and feel great about it.

What does “designer” mean in this context?

The best in class factories/process that make your favorite designer labels make Ditsies. Same fabric suppliers, dyers, designers, and sewers that make other leading high end “Made in USA” brands. But instead of adding layers of distributors and marketing expenses that lead to a crazy markups, Ditsies goes directly to the consumer.

Is your clothing in any way environmentally friendly?

Part of what makes us (and hopefully) our customers feel great about their undies, is knowing that they were not made in exploitative conditions (of people, or of the environment). We visit our factories frequently to ensure compliance in ethical production. And we’re really aware of the environment in our production decisions. Our strategy is to keep it local: our designers and production are all in NYC, reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible. And to go re-useable/recycled materials where we can.

Your pieces are made in NYC – how are they made – what does that process look like?

I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you. I will say that I tend to bring a lot of cookies to work on the days the sample models come in.

You have a cause behind your brand – you donate 10% of each pair you sell to a certain charity or cause: how did you pick these, and why?

We believe in women and their ability to kick ass – and not exactly through “charity” but through empowerment. One of our partners, Somaly Mam, empowers formerly exploited women through education and entrepreneurial training – very similar to a Rwandan genocide widows program I worked for during business school. Education and opportunity opens up a world of possibility to women and to their communities.

Our other cause, Breast Cancer Research Foundation, which funds the scientists and researchers fighting breast cancer, is very close to home, and more of a personal crusade. My sister Louise, the most fantastic ass kicker I’ve ever known, lost her battle to breast cancer a few years ago. She was so beautiful. And so wickedly funny. And at Harvard Law. And in love. And 28.

People spend so much time at work, and so when creating Ditsies, it was important to me to both share it with my sister in some way, and to build a company that I felt was doing something good, and beautiful, and positive, and that I would enjoy as a customer.

Get started on your new Ditsies (delicates? panties? underpants?) here.

(Photo: Ditsies – used with permission).

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