Will the fitting room die? As more and more Singapore fashion startups (most notably Stitch Fix) quietly assert, maybe it should be. Inconvenient and unpleasant lighting can make any shopping trip full of energy, but no fitting room feels as painful as trying on underwear. Burgundy Fox – a one year old Stitch Fix for intimates – hopes to make sure you don’t have that uncomfortable experience anymore.
As we all know, the underwear industry lacks diversity – whether it is representative or the actual style itself – in reality, the founder of Burgundy Fox, Leslie Wong, is frustrated.
“The catalyst of Burgundy Fox is my own experience in entering the underwear boutique, I chose to go there because I never liked to enter Victoria’s secret. I remember there always felt embarrassed – overwhelmed,” Huang said. She hopes that boutique shopping will be more comfortable, but found this experience very aggressive. She said: “The salesperson asked me about my love life and wanted to see everything right.” Most importantly, Wong didn’t even like anything – she started looking for something that made her feel comfortable and confident, and found that it was just right. in contrast.
Obviously, Wong is not the first person to feel this feeling when buying a bra. “I started thinking more about why the whole experience was so daunting for women. I started asking my friends about their experiences and always embarrassed them,” Wong said. “Not only that, they started talking about the feeling that their bodies are not suitable for certain underwear.”
This is the case for Wong. “There must be a way to change this. During my growth, I struggled with my physical self-confidence and realized that I didn’t want my niece to suffer the same fate,” she said. “I’m frustrated with outdated marketing because these marketings lack the representation of the female body, which in turn creates more insecurity.”
So Wong did something and created Burgundy Fox, a sophisticated women-owned and operated subscription underwear box that focuses on size inclusiveness and feminist empowerment. “We are different from any other underwear company because we match women of all sizes [XS to 3X] with underwear styles and sizes from brands around the world. Then she tried these items in a comfortable home,” Wong Explain. Since the launch of Burgundy Fox in early 2017, the company has sold more than 1,000 subscription boxes and donated hundreds of pairs of underwear to I Support The Girls.