WSG 19 Underwear Lisa Mullans Perkins
wsg 19 Lisa Mullan Perkins
Underwear has always been a weak spot in my wardrobe. A terrible, shredded, stained, cheap weak spot. I blame my New England roots for not being able to bring myself to spend more than ten bucks on a pair of unders. There was a time I used to buy super fun underwear at Filene’s Basement. If you haven’t heard about Filene’s Basement, long gone now, here is a link. In 1986, high school, I scored a pink, satin Christian Dior bra. I loved it and despite fitting terribly, I felt special wearing it and had the bra for decades. It was so pretty and luxurious. Underwear can be empowering.
We all wore full fanny coverage that varied in fabric and cut. In that era thongs were not a common thing where I was except in racy lingerie stores and foreign countries. Sexy meant “high cut” way up the leg, over the hip. Then came the Calvin Klein brand and they were like tighty whities for girls. Still full coverage, though. The only really snazzy underwear I had that was not from Filene’s was a gift from my Step Mom. The set was from a trip to France and wasn't bought on sale! I still have the thong.
In recent years I really stepped it up with organic underwear…..from Whole Foods. Yup, I buy my underpants at whole foods. The bikini briefs, preferably in nude. I like them! But all that is about to change. I am ready for an upgrade AND I’m interviewing the new queen of the elegant down between, Lisa Mullan Perkins, Co-founder of Uwilla Warrior, Comfortable, Beautiful, Functional Underwear. Before we dig into the interview, a rant:
Rant
Unders, trow, bloomers, skivvies, knickers, undies, pants, underpants, bikinis, briefs, panties. All terms for female underwear. Personally, I have trouble with one term in particular: panties. Maybe it’s me but I find there is something incredibly demeaning about cutsie terms for female underwear like “panties.” Do we call men’s underwear panties? Why not? Someone might say “keep your pants on” to a guy as a way to say “cool your jets.” When a guy says to another guy “don’t get your panties in a twist” what does that mean? It means don't act like a dramatic girl, or an impatient girl, or questioning girl, or a cautious girl or a sensitive girl. A girl. A woman. A mother. A step mother. A wife. A sister. An aunt. A grandmother.
Why do/did men feel that connecting a man with a term for women’s underwear is to accuse him of being less of a man? Like when men call each other “pussies” for doing or not doing something that is considered weak mentally or physically (“Don’t be such a pussy”). “Pussy” refers to the female genitalia (which is itself a term of slander but that’s for another rant another time). That particular genitalia also produces babies and there isn’t anything weak about that. It’s also the place where a lot of men want to be as much as possible and distracts their thoughts constantly. I wouldn’t call that weak, either. I’d call it a cult. Empires have been won and lost for them. The term ”pussy” should evoke strength and not weakness. The term panties just shouldn’t exist at all.
Maven of the Week: Lisa Mullan Perkins
Enter, Lisa Mullan Perkins! Lisa comes to the fashion world by way of necessity. In this case, well fitting underwear for women of all sizes. I think this quote sums up Lisa’s journey ”We are women who deserve underwear that fits and is pleasing to us, not to someone else.” Amen!
When you look at the Uwila Warrior line, you’ll notice the wonderful colors and fabrics, as well as lines of fit. I can’t wait to get my “Days of the Week Bundle” and know that I’m sporting some sassy trou under my clothes. Please enjoy our interview below!
What has been the biggest surprise about starting and operating an “intimacies” company?
There are so many answers to this. A) How hard it is to start and run a business compared to working in a corporate job. B) How many legacy intimates brands are run by men, C) The delight you see when a woman finds underwear or a bra that resolves a particular challenge she has been living with for years... the delight of creating something that takes away from pain and nicks she had experienced in her daily life, prior to discovering a solution that works for her body shape and size.
What has been the biggest challenge?
Good grief, there are so many challenges. Like initially producing in Italy at negative gross margins, initially naming the company "The Intelligence Bureau" to find out that is also the name of the Pakistani Intelligence Agency, Hiring lawyers in China to fight copycat trademarking of our name and logo, having huge parts of product shipments stolen in transit, having our previous warehouse tell us in October 2019 they sold the building and we needed to be out in two weeks (right before the holiday surge), having one of our largest wholesale customers Neimans go bankrupt and navigating the creditor process. Funny enough, I thought unhappy customers would be one of the toughest parts of this business, but challenging customer situations more often than not are teaching moments for our team.
Why create underwear or “under things” as you say? Tell me about your comment that the business was “born out of frustration.” A term I relate to.
Underwear is something we talk about with close friends, sisters, mothers and confidants. And when we talk about our underwear we lament about how the sexy lingerie we had been marketed to purchase over the years was a bag of false promises- especially as our bodies changed post children. They nicked us through the day, gave wedgies in the worst moments, look terrible under our clothes and were flat out insulting. We are women who deserved underwear that fit and is pleasing to us, not to someone else. The need for an alternative underwear was clear and with my co-founder, Natalia’s connections to make unicorn underwear-- Uwila Warrior was born.
Let’s discuss the word “panties” for a moment.
I avoid using the word panties. Something cringy about it...
Hubspot has played a serious role in your own career as well as the day to day operations and creation of Uwilla Warrior. Please tell what you would like us to know about this important relationship.
The people at and the culture of HubSpot were incredibly supportive of me starting Uwila Warrior. HubSpot was a breath of fresh air to work at post the clubby fraternity of my previous career in Investment Management. Fun fact- not only did HubSpot let me use my employee portal to get the business up and running, we have since worked together to beta a few ecommerce features they have since rolled out.
We talked about the homogeneity in certain industries, like finance, where you worked for a number of years. In fact, you quoted a former CEO of a certain financial industries firm as saying “There are no good women to hire” in response to the question of why his company was not more diverse. Tell me your thoughts on this:
His words are a cop out, and more about that man's subconscious bias and his self preservation. There are plenty of educated and able women out there. I think there is a fact that 90% of valedictorians are female? We need more men to step in and mentor women to show them the ropes and to promote them. Statistically, there is hard evidence that women are just as intelligent and capable as men, they are just taxed with social programming disallowing them to reach their full work potential.
Please tell me a bit about your involvement in Invest In Girls.
Love Love Love Invest In Girls. Programming like Invest In Girls enables high school women to be the CFO of their life. They are armed with an education to make better personal financial choices and also can see themselves in various roles in financial services.
Tell me about the decision to have sizes: xs, s, m, L, xl, 2xl, 3xl? Sizes XXS to 3X (and 4X in some styles).
50% of American woman are a size 16 or larger. If two sized medium women (my co founder and I) were struggling to find comfortable functional underwear I can't even fathom how challenging this search is for women at various ends of a size range. We are committed to get all women (no matter what her size) in a comfortable functional pair of underwear.
What are you excited about now?
We are in the throes of participating in the fantastic non profit, Mass Challenge, where our team is learning so much about how to scale Uwila Warrior. I feel like we are going to school for our MBA in addition to running the business plus managing our family lives. Our team has never been so charged with ideas to grow Uwila Warrior, which is energizing. Personally, I am thrilled that our children are back in school learning in person and that their sports are in full swing.
What books are on your bedside table?
"GROUP" by Christie Tate (who is also one of my closest high school friends)
"GRIT" by Angela Duckworth
"My Own Words" Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"The Innovator's Dilemma" Clayton Christensen
What do you do to relax?
I love to run, or go for a long walk with my daughter to relax. I don't golf enough these days, but that is one of my favorite escapes. In between all of this, wine certainly helps.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I loved the travel industry and majored in Hospitality Administration in college. However, I quickly pivoted to finance/business when I earned a "D" in the required cooking class as a part of the Hotel School curriculum. Life lesson learned- difficult to receive, transparent feedback, (in this case being graded on a curve in cooking class) can be the most helpful feedback.
What category/subject would you add to the Guide?
How about "Destination Unknown". I planned and organized to have a career in investment management and ended up making underwear (with a key stop in between working at HubSpot). We don't know what the next chapter (good or bad) holds for us, but finding passion and purpose when reaching unintended destinations is what makes life, life.
A Recipe You Won’t Hate: Green Herb Topping!
As for a recipe, as I get older I just make stuff up as I cook (screw following the rules of a recipe - unless you are baking or making a turkey). One of my favorite things is to take one bunch of fresh italian parsley, one bunch of fresh cilantro, A bunch of green onions, squeeze 1/2 of a lemon to add lemon juice and add a dash of olive oil and a little salt I throw all of this in the food processor and spoon it into a mason jar I keep in the fridge. I add it to everything- salads, eggs, on nachos, on top of steak.
That’s all for now. I hope you’ve enjoyed another edition of WSG. With gratitude and no wedgie, Kim.
Wonderful, Lauren! I'm sure Lisa has a lot more to tell us about Invest In Girls and stories about the underwear customer service. Perhaps an online open session is in order?
LoL....the term "panties" is a dirty word in disguise. If I try to say this word, it sticks in my throat and it grates on me every time I hear it. Couldn't agree with you more, Kim!