We have two homes. Earth and our body. Be good to both.
Bootstrapping a Sustainable Lingerie Brand
I built nude & not to scratch two itches: my creative urges and my entrepreneurial ego. While freelancing for DTC brands, I'd learned the tricks of the trade and was eager to build my own brand.
Many say the best startups are born from solving problems, but I believe more often they come from monetizing market insights. The insights I could spot were clear: new-age women want to celebrate femininity and support sustainability. The culture is demanding brands that are visibly responsible, less pretentious, and unapologetically vocal—rightfully demanding a break from the traditional sexualized and racialized imagery of the lingerie industry.
The economics of the lingerie sector made sense, too. Lingerie has an exciting feature—no returns. Manufacturing is close to automation. Circular fashion ideology ensures zero inventory waste. The result? Decent economics.
For the love of fancier unit economics, and because of the evolving demand-supply dynamics of the organic cotton industry, I chose to go cross-border DTC (India to UK/US). India is the world's second-largest producer of organic cotton, while the West produces none because of poor soil fertility and less organic farming-friendly land. China was once the largest producer, but no one in the sustainable sector buys from China for obvious reasons. As sustainable fabrics gain traction in Western markets, the supply chain points in one direction: India.
Looking through the consumer's lens, organic cotton is the safest and most hygienic natural fabric one could wear. All the new pseudo-sustainable, pseudo-hygienic Western alternatives are attempts to manage this growing demand-supply gap.
Meanwhile, logistics were also improving daily. I could deliver a London order from New Delhi in three days. And of course, the prospect of building a London fashion brand from my room in East Delhi was too exciting to ignore. So I built it.
