If you’re not comfortable sitting down, Katie Lopez and Nicola Piercy might be able to help. Because their motto is “Nothing great was accomplished with uncomfortable knickers.”
“You can’t sit in a board meeting with someone who has a bad wedgie,” says Lopez, 48, who co-founded underwear brand Stripe & Stare with Piercy, 47, in 2017. Focused on creating the ultimate comfortable knickers, they have now sold over 2 million units, employ 40 people and have a 2023 turnover of £5.5 million (net profit of £181,600) reached. Stripe & Stare is stocked in the US at Selfridges (an early supporter), Marks & Spencer and recently Nordstrom. Its fans include everyone from Oprah Winfrey to fashion influencer Camille Charrière, with whom the brand collaborated in October 2023.
Now, they’re taking everything they’ve learned as entrepreneurs who saw a gap in the market for products that make women feel safe, not objectifying them, and putting it into a new initiative to mentor budding founders.
The premise of Stripe & Stare was simple and straightforward. It’s a beautifully designed, simple knicker that doesn’t give you the dreaded VPL (visible panty line) and is made using low impact materials. Probably no one needs more clothes, but buying new underwear is non-negotiable. Therefore, it is important to create it responsibly.
Lopez’s brainwave was born about 20 years ago, when she and her sister ran Austic boutiques on London’s King’s Road and Notting Hill. These stores were a favorite of socialites, and USP imported stylish small brands such as Hanky Panky, brightly colored one-size-fits-all lace thongs that customers bought by the armful.
“I found fashion to be really difficult because it changes so much and it’s so hard to predict,” the down-to-earth Lopez says in a video call from Stripe & Steer’s Devon warehouse. “We’re always looking at ways to make more money, and I was really interested in underwear. Once women find a brand they like, they keep coming back to it. This thong brand ,1 But as a buyer, I thought, “This is great, but we’re British and we like pants, and they’re cool and affordable.” Where can I find everyday knickers at a reasonable price?” She points out that back then there were either “male-oriented” Victoria’s Secret or “Bridget Jones granny pants.” The idea was to “wear it with your favorite jeans and T-shirt” and find knickers that “look great and are comfortable too.”
After her mother sewed the first prototype, Lopez began small-scale production over about six years of research and development. The result is a lace-trimmed mid-rise pant edged with flatlock stitching, made from soft, biodegradable Tencel Modal (a wood pulp-derived fabric made from managed wood resources). did. “(Stitching) eliminates VPL and prevents it from moving around and driving us women crazy,” says Lopez.
The pants were initially sold under a different brand name, but after a harrowing legal battle over trademarks, the company was rebranded in 2017 with Lopez’s old friend Piercy, who previously served as managing director of the culinary school. Reborn as Stripe and Stair. Participated in L’atelier de Chefs before its launch. They started with a grassroots approach, selling their knickers themselves at the Spirit of Christmas Fair, a showcase for independent brands in London’s Olympia, and invested £70,000 to launch the business. Ta.
The brand is characterized by bright colors and prints with lace trim, and now comes in a variety of shapes, from high-waisted to thong to hipster. “We are a company by women, for women, and that has always been at the heart of what we do,” says Lopez. That’s why they make “token men’s boxer shorts.”
The company became like a lifeline for both of them. In 2015, Austique went into voluntary administration due to debts, and Lopez and Piercy decided to implement the Knicker scheme. The trademark fight, like many life’s catastrophes, added a fly to the ointment. Within a week, “my father passed away on Sunday, and on Monday I found out that my now ex-husband had not been honest with me about my financial situation,” Lopez said. On Thursday, her home was robbed “from top to bottom” during her father’s funeral. All this at the same time as being £1.5 million in debt and without a stable home. “It was a car accident moment where everything happened at once.”
Then, in 2018, less than a year after Stripe & Stare launched, Piercy’s beloved husband Luke passed away suddenly at the age of 40. “I got addicted to[the business],” she says. “That’s been my existence and purpose for six years, and it’s truly been a lifesaver for me.”
Fortunately, business got off to a good start. The pandemic and the rapid pivot to loungewear and pajamas inspired Pandora Sykes and Dorie Alderton’s The High Low, a then-new podcast with an audience of savvy millennial women. Combined with the clever strategy of becoming a sponsor, this situation was created.
Collaboration is also important. The first was the 2021 LoveShackFancy, which sold out in an hour. Most recently, Stripe & Stare partnered with Debute, a new label run by social It girls Jazzy de Lisser and Lola Bute, and on January 16th, Stripe & Stare launched a collection with Rixo, featuring knickers, bodysuits, baby It features leopard, heart, and stripe prints on T-shirts and other items. – Shirt and soft bra. Stripe & Stare has been B Corp certified since 2022. “No one is perfect, and certainly neither are we, but we try to do the right thing,” she says.
2022 will see Stripe & Steer’s biggest investment, with £1.5m from BGF Private Equity, as well as angel investors including Lovehoney co-founder Richard Longhurst and Sipsmith’s Sam Galsworthy. There were also rounds from For Lopez and Piercy, sharing their insights about the world of private equity and investing has become something of a personal mission.
“They don’t take you seriously, and you have to work twice as hard as men. At[venture capital]meetings, women get very risk-based questions,” Lopez says. “For example, what are you going to do if everything goes wrong? How are you going to stop it? Men, on the other hand, are asked more growth-based questions. I’ve been in rooms where I was immediately subjected to intense interrogation.”
In response, Stripe & Stare has expanded its efforts to support other women in similar positions, launching the S&S Foundation in September, a free mentorship program for pre-seed’s only female founders. Ta.
“If women could start and grow businesses at the same rate as men, we would add an extra £250 billion to the UK economy,” Piercy said, citing the Alison Rose Review of Women’s Entrepreneurship. did. “We also know that less than 2 percent of venture capital funding goes to women. There is a gap in how to take women-led businesses to the next level.” The mentorship program has already worked with over 50 founders.
The pair may have solved the long-hated VPL, but they believe their mission is more powerful than just pants. “Because it’s intimate, it opens the door to women-led movements, equality, and gynecological health. Our underwear connects to a larger conversation,” says Lopez.
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