Canadian Designers Are Reimaging Women’s Workwear
Xenia Chen wore the identical uniform to her company job at a private-equity agency each day for practically two years: A go well with or costume, heels—and tights. And every day, she grew extra aggravated. She had to purchase an limitless provide of pantyhose since they’d consistently rip. But her choices had been both European name-brand pairs that price $70 a pop, or low cost drugstore choices that felt horrible on her pores and skin. Her co-workers had been all the time desirous to commiserate about this terrible state of hosiery affairs: Control tops had been too restrictive, leg size was by no means lengthy sufficient and “nude” tights didn’t match their pores and skin tone.
So Chen determined to do one thing about it.
In 2018, Toronto-based Chen began Threads, a line of high-quality, reasonably priced tights, as a facet mission. Those watercooler complaints had been like gold for Chen; she formulated her merchandise primarily based on suggestions from her co-workers and from a survey of 200 individuals in her community. Chen created tights made with double-covered yarn, that means that the stitching machine goes over them twice, making them extra sturdy than most pairs in the marketplace. She contoured the management high, lengthened the leg and created quite a few shades to match numerous pores and skin tones. Chen made them cheaper than designer tights too, priced between $20 and $50 a pair. A year-and-a-half after beginning Threads, the business was sturdy sufficient that Chen made it her full-time gig.
Women’s workwear is a burgeoning sector: The international market dimension is valued at upwards of US$150 billion as of 2023. The ladies’s attire market, total, is anticipated to extend by practically three per cent yearly from 2023 to 2027, due to a rising inhabitants of working ladies, ever-evolving tendencies and the section’s sturdy spending energy. And, as extra staff head again to the workplace, the clamouring for versatile, trendy and sensible workwear grows louder.
Chen and her fellow Canadian designers are prepared to fulfill demand. Threads sells tights direct-to-consumer on-line and affords subscriptions for folk who undergo a number of pairs, like flight attendants. They have a buyer repurchase charge of 35 to 40 per cent, and Chen says gross sales are rising 200 to 300 per cent year-over-year. Threads lately diversified into males’s tights and nipple covers, and is tackling bricks-and-mortar now, too: In the final yr, they began partnering with specialty retailers throughout North America. “We believe the future of retail is with independent retailers, so we’re doubling down on that this year,” Chen says. “We’d love to expand into Europe in the near future.”
Toronto-based engineer Nina Kharey is one other designer reimagining workwear. She launched ladies’s line Nonie in 2015, promoting wardrobe staples like skinny zippered trousers, fashionable trenches (together with a trench costume worn by Meghan Markle), tailor-made tees and outsized blouses.
But in early 2021, she realized a brand new skilled want and created Folds, a medical-techwear model that makes antiviral and antibacterial scrubs from recycled supplies—like outdated rugs and airbags—which might be 100 per cent recyclable. Kharey wished to supply higher choices for these engaged on the frontline of the pandemic, and says her clothes final twice so long as common scrubs since they’re produced from self-cleaning, sturdy material that requires much less washing. “Our growth has been explosive, so keeping up with demand has been an ongoing challenge with having to amp up production so quickly,” Kharey says.
Canada has enormous potential to create modern manufacturers like hers, Kharey says, however the excessive prices and restricted funding alternatives generally is a burden for budding entrepreneurs. Canadian designers have lengthy been asking for extra assist and funding, and exterior of Quebec, they nonetheless battle to safe grants allotted to different inventive industries like music and humanities. That’s why Kharey lately turned to the U.S. to develop her business; she finds there’s extra venture-capital alternatives there. Kharey says she had a profitable spherical of fundraising in early 2022, and is beginning to work with high-profile U.S. traders as a part of a seed spherical. “Being self-reliant as a country is important, but the support here is weak. It’s no secret people start focusing on other countries and come back to Canada when their ideas have been proven,” Kharey says. “It’s a bit backwards. The government is slow to see it, but the potential for clothing innovation and manufacturing is right here on our own soil.”
Chen agrees that Canada remains to be a little bit of an untapped market—however one with loads of potential. “It’s tough to find cool women’s workwear, especially at a more affordable price point,” she says. “I also think there is a huge market for workwear that’s made from technical materials that are easy to care for. No one wants to spend a fortune at the dry cleaners!”
Helping ladies keep away from huge dry cleansing payments was the inspiration behind Michelle Shemilt’s workwear model, Numi. In 2014, the Toronto-based former fairness dealer created a line of sweat-proof undershirts for girls to put on below clothes like silk blouses and wool sweaters so that they wouldn’t should be dry cleaned after every put on. Numi undershirts are designed with a technical material protect within the underarm that absorbs moisture to banish sweat stains.
Since launching her undershirts, Shemilt has expanded into different workwear must-haves, together with moisture-wicking shelf bra camis to keep away from breast sweat. In 2021, she debuted sustainable silk blouses, which, she says, are the one silk blouses in the marketplace which might be each stain-resistant and machine-washable. “You can spill coffee, wine or juice on it and it will just roll off,” she says. “At the end of the day, you machine wash and tumble dry.”
Easy-to-wear clothes are on the coronary heart of Encircled, one other Canadian model making functional-yet-fashionable workwear. A decade in the past, Toronto-based founder Kristi Soomer was working 80-hour weeks as a method marketing consultant and had little time to seek out trendy, snug clothes that may go well with work, journey, socializing and enjoyable. She began Encircled in 2012 to deal with her procuring conundrum. Encircled sells office-appropriate sweatpants and sweatshirts (clothes that don’t appear to be sweats), draped blazers and puff-sleeved attire in tender cotton.
The surest signal Encircled is doing one thing proper? They’ve been knocked off a bunch of occasions over time: Their “Dressy Sweatpants” and “Chrysalis Cardi” costume are their most-copied items. It’s irksome, however Soomer maintains concentrate on figuring out the ever-evolving workwear wants of her purchasers. One of her most profitable latest merchandise was a T-shirt costume. On Instagram, Encircled requested followers what they cherished and hated about T-shirt attire, then designed one primarily based on the suggestions. Once it hit their website, it offered out inside 24 hours. “The more you can integrate people along the way, and test your product with them, you’ll… ultimately make a better product,” Soomer says.
Post-pandemic shopping for habits may additionally assist convey in additional purchasers. After just a few years of residing in our pyjamas, Shemilt says, employees notice that getting dressed isn’t nearly how we glance; it impacts how we really feel. More persons are reaching for his or her blouses and attire once more, however what ladies are in search of of their clothes has barely modified. “There is a need for functional workwear because one pandemic habit we don’t want to give up is clothes that are easy to wear and care for,” she says.
Chen agrees. “We all got our sweatsuit fix in the beginning of the pandemic and people are now wanting to get the best of both worlds,” she says. “They want to be comfortable but they also want to look good.”
