Spotlight: How Amour Cache is Creating Lingerie that Aligns with Your Lifestyle And Complete Inclusivity
By Emily Alexander
For many people, bras and underwear represent the articles of one’s wardrobe that demand the least thought. They are often seen merely through a lens of functionality. Deean Yeoh and Agnes Zhan want to change all that. Lingerie should reflect your taste and experience --- everything from a favorite material to adjustments, to surgery or changes in lifestyle. With bra sizes ranging from AA-G, and bottoms ranging from XS-2XL, Amour Cache is dedicated to acknowledging these adaptations, and creating lingerie for all women. Creating comfortable, high quality, beautiful undergarments, Yeoh and Zhan aim to empower women who may feel underrepresented or unseen within the traditional lingerie industry.
Q & A with Deean Yeoh and Agnes Zhan
Q: What special details does your collection embody, that makes it stand apart from all other lingerie brands?
A: Season 1: Flora & Fauna was inspired by color combinations and shapes that occur in nature. During the early days of Amour Caché, we were trying to decide what colors would be appropriate for our debut collection; something outstanding to grab attention, but not too outstanding to be un-wearable.
Right around that time, one of our co-founders took a trip to London and visited The Natural History Museum while she was there. One of the exhibits in particular stood out to her. It explained that the origins of the pink hue in flamingo feathers was actually toxins released when flamingos ingested algae called spirulina. It occurred to her then that there was no need to come up with crazy colors for Amour Caché’s debut collection. All the colors we ever needed already existed in nature - we just had to look.
What makes Amour Caché stand apart from other lingerie brands is that we seek to cater to all walks of life. We wanted to create a lingerie brand that isn't just size and shape inclusive, but is also inclusive to various people with different life experiences - like breast cancer or pregnancy. A person’s body is ever changing, and we wanted to create a brand that would support our customers through all their journeys.
Our new collection, launching 2022, will include a maternity bra that expands with the changing bust line of soon-to-be mothers.
Q: What inspires you most when designing your lingerie?
A: As people who come from tailoring backgrounds, we really care about fit. The art of darting and drapery has always been so interesting to us - how can you take a piece of fabric and mold it in a form-flattering way? When we design, we focus on two things: seams and fabrics. We love experimenting with seam lines. Elongating a seam line, like in The Cristal Wireless Bra for example, can create lift. Simultaneously, playing with fabric placement is always interesting. Not only can it create elegant designs, like the tiger eyes in our Cristal Wireless Bra, but it can also be shaping. For example, the lightweight push-up we created using fabric contouring in The Ana Longline Bra and Dani Balconette Bra.
Q: Do you plan to expand your brand into more than lingerie? If so, what products do you hope to carry?
A: We’re actually toying with the idea of expanding into loungewear in our Season 2 (2022) collection. We’ll definitely be launching a bodysuit soon - something that can be taken from day to night.
Q: Why should potential customers invest into your lingerie?
A: Lingerie isn’t cheap, but we believe there’s a reason for this. Amour Caché's first priority is quality; we know our value, and every detail and consideration placed in our pieces makes them well worth the cost.
Lingerie is complex. A single bra can be made up of 18+ components and take hours to pattern-make, cut, sew, quality inspect and pack. We take great pride in carefully sourcing fabrics, especially since a large portion of our customers are coming to us, post-surgery, with sensitive scar tissue. All our elastics are plush-backed and super soft, while our incredibly lightweight mesh has a cooling effect. Our elastics, mesh, and lace are also OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, which means no harmful chemicals were used in the dyeing process. So, it’s safe for our customers and our environment.
Because of our love of fabrics, we try to source unique materials that haven’t necessarily made it into the mass lingerie industry yet. So, when you own one of our pieces, you know it’s one-of-a-kind and sourced with care.
We also go through several rounds of sample making before launching a product to make sure that the fit is perfect and the sizing is consistent.
Ultimately, we never release a product unless we’d be comfortable wearing it ourselves or recommending it to a family member.
Q: What partnerships do you hope to make in the next year for the sake of your brand's growth?
A: We have an e-magazine that’s paired with Amour Caché called,L’AMOURZINE. The e-magazine is really our way of talking about things that matter to us and reaching our community with a voice and soul. This is where a large portion of our partnerships have taken place and where, we hope, will continue to take place. To date, we’ve covered topics likethe artist’s journey with artist Alina Zamanova,body diversity in fashion with model Enga D,food justice with food consultant Tara Thomas,equality for the transgender community with the Trans Emergency Fund’s Executive Director, Chastity Bowick andearly breast screenings with Know Your Lemons CEO, Dr. Corrine Ellsworth-Beaumont. We love partnering with strong women with equally strong opinions and sharing the L’AMOURZINE platform as a means to get their message across to people. For anyone interested in sharing their story with us, please contact admin@amour-cache.com.
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