I don't know how I landed on this article, but I'm glad I did. Great news for trans folks. Below is the article from a site called
If the images above seem completely ordinary to you, then
Chrysalis Lingerie has done its job.
The first collection from this new NYC label represents something of a
breakthrough in alternative fashions: the perfectly-named
Chrysalis is the first lingerie line designed for, and by, transgender women.
For the estimated one million American adults who identify as transgender, this is no small milestone.
“A lot of women have been waiting a long time for something like this,” Chrysalis co-founder
Cy Lauz told
Lingerie Talk.
“Speaking from personal experience, I found no products that
specifically cater to transgender women. There are some things for
cross-dressers and drag queens, but they’re all sexually exploitative.
“I wanted a product that actually celebrated who we are, something that made us feel beautiful but is also practical.”
Now, for the curious, let’s get to the big question: What
exactly distinguishes lingerie for the TG market?
Chrysalis will launch this spring with a basics
collection of bra-and-panty ensembles in five colors. The power-mesh
panty is designed to create a seamless look by using a special panel
that “tucks us in,” Cy said, while the bra comes with hidden pockets
that hold full-cup inserts to create the appearance of a natural
bustline.
The result is a product line versatile enough to work with different
body shapes and still achieve traditionally feminine lines. (The models
used in
Chrysalis‘ promotional photos are all TG women.)
The brand is also planning a couture collection that will use its
technical innovations in teddies, shapewear, lingerie and even swimwear.
Various studies estimate up to 6% of the adult population identifies
as transgender — people who experience some degree of dysphoria related
to their birth gender, and who frequently choose to live as a member of
the opposite sex. About two-thirds are male-to-female transgenders,
which is the audience that
Chrysalis was designed for.
Only a small percentage of transgender women are pursuing sex
reassignment surgery or hormone therapy that can help them develop
natural female curves. As a result, finding appropriate undergarments
can be a challenge, and shopping for underwear in women’s stores also
presents obvious difficulties.
“
Chrysalis answers a lot of problems and questions
for transgender women regarding their underwear,” Cy said. “It gives
them peace of mind. You don’t have to think about it anymore.”
Chrysalis Lingerie is the brainchild of Cy, an interior designer and fashion stylist, and partner
Simone Tobias, the creative director of a menswear brand. The company got its first public exposure last fall when it was featured in the
Style Network documentary, ‘
Born Male, Living Female‘.
For its founders, though,
Chrysalis is about a lot more than fashion: it’s about the politics of acceptance for a misunderstood and maligned community.
“
Chrysalis wants to change how transgender people
are viewed,” Cy said. “We want to make people look at transgender people
as human beings.
“We’re done hiding. We’re done keeping quiet. We are a very diverse community, we do exist, and we have explicit needs.”
Although 16 U.S. states have enacted non-discrimination laws that
specifically protect transgender people, the TG community still faces
widespread discrimination, marginalization and even violence. It is also
one of most widely misunderstood groups in society, burdened by
stereotypes of flamboyant drag queens and viewed as a kind of sexual
deviance. Gender identity disorder is still listed as a mental illness
in psychiatric reference texts.
“One of the the things that’s definite in our lives is your gender,”
Cy said. “When something blurs that line, I can see how other people
would feel threatened by that. It shakes your reality.
“We don’t want to paint a picture of what a transgender woman is
supposed to look like,” she added, “but we do want to change how the
outside community relates to us.
“We all have one common denominator — we’re all still human beings. And we want to be acknowledged for who and what we are.”
A chrysalis, the cocoon stage in the life cycle of a butterfly, is the perfect symbol for what
Chrysalis Lingerie is trying to achieve, she said.
“A chrysalis is also a metaphor of transformation,” she said. “But in
order to transition, you need to create a space where you are safe and
loved.”
Because their first collection has a traditional, minimalist look that wouldn’t be out of place on the shelves of
Armani or even
DKNY,
Chrysalis risks being accused of trying to make the TG community appear more “normal” as a way of conforming to societal expectations.
The company knows this, and is highly sensitive to the complex politics of identity in the LGBT world, Cy said.
Chrysalis
isn’t pushing a one-size-fits-all vision of TG life, although it is
staying away from explicit fashions that can reinforce stereotypes and
further marginalize transgender women.
“I feel there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s really sexually
explicit in nature,” she said. “We’re just trying to balance the
market.”
And the timing is right for something like
Chrysalis, she added. While news events like
this weekend’s decision by the
Miss Universe Canada
pageant to bar a TG competitor still get the most attention, public
acceptance of gender-variant people is also growing. Portrayals of TG
characters in TV and films is becoming more common, and in 2010 the
Obama administration appointed TG activist
Amanda Simpson as an advisor to the Commerce Department.
“The whole world is embracing the fact that humanity comes in
different forms,” Cy said. “Life is so vast and so glorious there has to
be more than two ways of living your life.”
Watch for the first collection from
Chrysalis Lingerie to appear on the company website soon. Products will be for sale online and, hopefully, through progressive retail boutiques.
